Tuesday, April 14, 2015

A2O Omarama to Kurow

I got out of bed this morning in terrible condition from my seizure yesterday. I knew immediately that I would not be able to ride. My leg was all locked up and every time I moved it it would start to cramp which will trigger a new seizure. I decided to take a bus to the next city and went looking for a bus. I found out that not only are there no ATM machines in town, there is also no bus service either. I did not want to hang out in a town with no money and in bad health so I tried to hitchhike out of town. I found two rides quickly but they were not leaving until early afternoon. I kept trying to hitch a ride but there were almost no vehicles going down the road that could carry my bike and myself. I finally got a ride but it only went about 12 miles down the road. At that point I decided I would try to ride my bike and if I had issues I would just stop and continue hitching. The A2O trail follows the road except where it swings around lake Aviemore for a little while. I just stayed on the road. I did not miss much of the trail. There was good weather and a slight tailwind for a change. I rode about 50 kilometers or 30 miles to the next town without having any problems with seizures or cramps. I decided to just stay here in a backpacker hostel in the town of Kurow.

I am the only one in the hostel right now. I have a three bedroom house to myself. Great shower, tv if I was interested, a nice fireplace and a couple friendly dogs and a cat to play with all for $16.00 US. Now if I can only wake up tomorrow in better health I could finish this ride from the Alps to the Ocean. Sorry no pics cause my camera is busted. If I am able to recover the pics I took I will try to post them later.

Well I worked on my camera and was able to recover a few pics. It seems to be working again now. I took out the chip and battery then replaced the battery before resetting the camera to factory. Then I replaced the SD card and was able to get some pics to work. It also does not do the "card error" message now. Most of the pics I tried to take were just missing from the chip.

A2O Twizel to Omarama

I spent last night at Twizel in a backpackers hostel called High Country and I enjoyed the stay. I was up early as usual and after a quick coffee at a bakery I hit the road. The temp was below freezing so I had to be careful of the black ice on the roads until I got to the A2O path which is crushed stone. The trail today was a bit rough in a few areas but otherwise it was a fairly easy ride. The scenery again was gorgeous with more fresh snow on the mountains making them stand out against the dark lower elevation where I was riding. The temps stayed right around freezing all day and light snow flurries were falling but no rain or hail today. The wind was still howling though.

I only had one little problem today. I had a seizure while riding along and I had to drop off my bike. Lucky for me it only lasted less than a minute. I could not ride afterward though. I had to wait over an hour before I stopped cramping up and I got my motor control back. It could have been much worse for me if I would have had a prolonged attack. I was 15 clicks from a road at the time so if I had to be rescued it would have been a big deal. Plus there was no cell phone signal so I would have had to wait on the trail until somebody came along the trail to go get help. I do hope I do not have that happen, ever. The other unfortunate thing is I landed on my camera and it has not worked since. It says "card error" every time I try to take a picture. I am hoping that getting a new SD card solves this problem but I am not sure it will. So I have not been able to take pics since the seizure.

Tonight I am staying in a holiday park cabin. I ran out of cash and there are no ATMs anywhere close to where I am. The next one is two or three towns away. I may get a bit hungry before I get there. I really do not understand why there are no ATMs around with all the tourists that come through here. I can’t be the only one that planned my cash supply poorly. Oh well such is life. I am still loving the ride pics or no pics.

Here are a few pics from before I smashed my camera.