Instead of having a good sleep I practiced a new type of interval training through the night. Every two hours I woke lying on the hard, cold ground and had to roll off my deflated air mattress and blow it up. It was not a restful night. I got up far too early in the morning because I couldn’t be bothered re inflating my mattress yet again, and made a half-hearted and unsuccessful effort to find the leak. Imagining I was going to be camping a whole lot more in the coming days I thought I better buy a new mat in Nelson. However, it was Sunday and the shops weren’t open for a couple more hours. I regretted getting up so early and killed time with breakfast at a cafe and looking around the Sunday market.
As soon as Torpedo 7 opened I bought a thermarest and packaged up my old mat and sent it home. The new mat was bulkier and heavier which was a nuisance.
John, Dovedale Valley.
I enjoyed the ride to Wakefield and the excellent bakery there. Steph and John R were there and I rode with them for the next couple of hours. I stopped for a rest at the top of Dovedale Saddle and had been there for 5 mins when I saw someone biking up from the other side. It was an acquaintance, Iain, who I did some trapping trips with a few years ago. He had done the TA the last time and was following me (and others) on Maprogress. It was really good to talk to him and his partner who arrived a few minutes later. He also gave me some useful intel, that a section ahead marked as closed for logging was open today as it was Sunday and so there'd be no logging.
Approaching Tapawera I got a wasp down the front of my jersey. After frantically clubbing myself I killed it but not before two stings.
