On Monday I had to go to Gisborne, so rather late in the morning, decided to go via the East Cape. I had been wanting to go round for quite a while and thought, why not?
What an awesome ride up to Lottin Point! But the rest? Forget!!! It started to rain at Hicks Bay. And the wind got up as well. Then, the road condition rapidly deteriorated on the eastern side right down to Gisborne. The flooding has caused a lot of slips that are still being cleaned up and there is a LOT of road subsidence. I quickly learned that if I saw a sign saying something to the effect of 'bumpy road ahead', SLOW DOWN! Some places the road suddenly dipped or jumped up by as much as half a foot!!
I finally crawled into Gisborne soaking wet (I hadn't anticipated the rain as it was wall to wall blue at home), and freezing cold at about 5.30pm in the dark with no accommodation organised! LOL Got that sorted, and got dried out kind of...
Tuesday morning I left foggy, wet Gisborne to head home to Whakatane via the Gorge. While it didn't rain, the road was wet until half-way through the Gorge and I didn't enjoy that. Oh, and I had to come to a fast stop to avoid a whole bunch of Turkeys crossing the road, taking up both lanes... Some subsidence on that road and slips as well. Other than that, when the road dried, it was an epic ride home
Needless to say, I'll check the weather forecast next time! Oh, and wait till summer I think.......
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