Long day out

 Today's driving was nearly 100 miles each way...for Pirate to see his club sponsor. It was worth it for both of them, plus we saw a clubmate who works for him. That one hasn't been too well or too happy...damaged knees in your early 60s is no fun..but is the result of years of heavy weight training. He is too young for knee operations....but fortunately now he has started back on his bike and is much happier...plus he is a good heavy Rock guitarist!

The weather looked good to start...

And stayed dry most of the day.

We stopped in Rhaeadr Gwy in both directions... convenient conveniences and good parking and decent cafés...even out of season.

It is an interesting crossroads in front of the clock....

The main north to south trunk road goes across in front of the clock...and the section of the road on the right hand side of the picture is narrow and goes between houses that are between 1300s and 1800s...so for a large lorry length the road is not much more than one very large lorry wide...

It is a very busy road...and sometimes it is made more "interesting" by lorries needing to turn to or from the east, past the clock.....

These carry all sorts of goods, plus log or stock lorries...( There is a stock market here)

Once on a previous visit we saw a couple of car drivers being rather selfish and obstinate....but they were very politely sorted by a very large beleathered motorbiker directing everyone out of the lorries' way!! 

Well done sir!!

Fortunately we had a clear run both ways, apart from huge construction works on the Heads of the Valleys road. Very confusing at the western end, which we avoided on our return by sticking to the A 470.  That will now go under a massive and elegant flyover by Merthyr Tudful...which will be finished in 2025...no month given on the signs!!

An easy day planned tomorrow.. thankfully..seeing daughter for lunch so we can see their garden.

Leaving Hamilton

 

This was the crank shaft from a Peugeot 405... including the flywheel.

The dish at the top is, I think, made from a hub cap. This reflects light from a candle set in the pot on the top.

One of John Taris' useful sculptures!!

We left a little late...I packed and Pirate chopped some more firewood so that he would feel better about the world..11am was an hour later than I had hoped.   But we both felt so at home that staying longer would have been easy!  However, Jenni needed her sewing room back!!

Car refuelled at Te Awamutu....and us with coffee...a clean T shirt for me from the St John's op shop...and we were away down State Highway 3.

I decided on this way down as the driving on SH1 always feels rushed and pushed..and it is a big haul for the car up onto the Desert Road to the east of Tongariro and Ruapehu. When we were planning, SH4 was closed by slips and washouts, but even though it was opened again yesterday morning I decided that it was a bit too scary! 

Plus the weather forecast was hotter for a drive down the middle of the Island.

So carry on down the 3 it was, after our lunch stop at Te Kuiti.  As we headed into the hills we found that a tunnel was now a cutting!! 

We both remembered the road from a journey made by bus ten years ago and it was interesting to see the changes.

A massive change is being made at Mount Messenger, where the road is very wiggly, and extremely steep for those heading North on The Great North Road as it is called.

The layby at the top is fenced off and is full of workers from Waka Kotahi, the roads department...and huge cranes and gantries with wires.. Like the ones the tree fellers sling huge trunks over and down from high slopes.

They are using this to bring up machines and materials.

Apparently a huge new route is being built over a swamp and a deep cutting made.  As it is the same crew that built Transmission Gully, with the same project manager, I am not surprised.

There are many questions over a project like this and how it affects nature and the environment. I can see pros and cons from both sides, and do not wish for any argument!!

We stopped in New Plymouth to call by a mutual friend who lives above his motorcycle mending and restoration business in a beautiful second floor flat with a fantastic view! The cuppa and cookie was welcome, and chat and relax.

Then back on the 3 as the rush hour traffic subsided, with a good two hour's driving to go. I hadn't been on that road for ten years, and hadn't driven on the section to Waverley..so it was good to see more countryside with fresh eyes. It was still hot, to our right Taranaki mountain and far away to our left lowering clouds over the hills.

Supper in Hawera then back home by 9...a ten hour day, but with decent length stops.  

We are feeling it a bit today...but still glad we did it all yesterday!!

Travelling north...the new road

 We headed off the ferry..and up the new Transmission Gulley Motorway....a breathtaking cut across country, avoiding the narrow bit of the Kāpiti Coast..... impressive...but not my kind of road atall!

When we did get back down to ordinary heights it was sad that the new SH1 is cutting right out parts of the old SH1....no thought of leaving the other for slower local traffic or bikes. The bike track where there is one is definitely for mountain or gravel bikes too.

Pirate had the tablet to take photos!...so here they are!!

I am having trouble with limited and erratic internet.....so the pictures are not all in the right order...but you get the idea of the massive project that this has been.

a day out,a sunset..

 Out in the car to the South of Ayrshire, and on the bikes from Barrhill into the Galloway forest.
No photostops in the first half of the ride, too busy keeping going against the chill wind..but the sun was nice and warm and we saw two red deer hinds on the edge of a forest stand. Down to Knowe,now just a very small hamlet and the inspiration for a few word puns...Knowe and then, Knowe-all...et cetera!!

The roads were rough and pot-holed, but even main roads are in bad condition now.

It was a relief to turn onto a smooth surface for a while, with the sun and wind at ones back!  Over to Bargrennan and the main A714 (Newton Stewart to Girvan) and back up to Barrhill.

 At 4pm the warmth was just going from the sun..and we went to Girvan for a "fish supper". Pirate has the fish,I have most of the chips and we both have mushy peas!  Well prepared in Grazianos,the chip shop by the harbour..and run by another cyclist!
Then chips by sunset..

 looking south..

 and out to Ailsa Craig,about 10 miles off shore.

 Going, going, gone...and the crow flew from the pole by the harbour...

which apples?

I've been hunting across tinterweb for the identity of our"crabapples".

Looks like they are malus sylvestris.  In other words plain wild apples, not feral, with something giving them red spots.....
The old road they grow alongside IS very old indeed.  So the trees could be at least three hundred years old...or bird sown descendants of the originals.
Pretty gnarly anyway, and in a rather windswept spot, so rather stunted.

apples!

We had a short walk today,  up the road, down an old road,now a track,across a bridge over the burn then, as the track disappeared...
across the field..and despite being up a slope, it was sodden after the amount of rain we have had.

We reached the top of a small hill,where we could then see laid out all the other farms around our home, plus a small farm track hidden in a dip that we hadn't realized was there.

Across a patch of rough ground and we picked up another old track, lined with wizened and gnarled trees.....many bearing fruit......

Crabapples...ripe and ready and still hanging on!!   We filled our pockets with fruit then headed for home as fine rain showers began.
Around another field margin to pick up another old road,now beneath earth, which goes along rather across the main valley, then down the nearest old track to home. We picked up fallen ash and apple branches on our way to keep ourselves warm in the evening.

The tarmacadamed roads now go along the Dyrock valley by us and up over Guiltree Hill from Kirkmichael to Dalrymple.     The old tracks laid with stones go across and up to the latter road from the farms.  I should think that the valley road is relatively new.

Apples!...The pink spots are their natural colouring,quite pretty. 
They are being washed in water with a dash of vinegar, then they will be joined in a preserving jar with vodka, sugar and some Geans ( wild cherries) from the freezer...picked last June.   
They'll be ready for the next Winter Solstice celebrations!!

roads

This road was being prepared for a new "seal"...tar and chippings...often the surface is scraped off and chewed up and "graded" with a layer of chippings, which the traffic helps to compact before it is sealed.  This was obviously a quick fix!!

 

The speed limit is 30k, after a bit that is increased to 50k.  Normal maximum speed is 100k on the open road, 70k at the edge of town and 50k closer in.
However as I found, not all of these fellows observe the limits on fresh seal....

mind you, they do look like REAL trucks!!!

A few k further on across the ashfield my windscreen on the van was hit by a chip thrown up by a speeding lorry. You could feel the whole screen move and I don't know how it didn't crack or shatter.

This isn't a road I'd take when cycling as I try and avoid most State Highways.
Newer ones do have a shoulder a metre or more wide, but this is unpredictable.
Even then the trucks do suck you in towards them.    The shoulder is also used when you are being overtaken in a car...you move over to make it easier for the overtaker.

Bridges generally don't have any shoulder so the road narrows on most bridges.

There is no fence at the side of the ditch and it seems that it is your responsibility not to fall in it!!   If there is a fence, it WILL be an electric fence as cattle are set to graze the verges....and it WILL be turned on!!
  I think it is really the attitude of self reliance and looking after yourself.

 UK "Health and Safety" would have nightmares here!!  -Perhaps H&S have gone too far and people expect too much to be done for them?  I don't know.