Sandbanks to Bloomfield and Wellington...
Alright, final report on riding over vacation.
Woke up Thursday morning to grey skies and a flat tire. Thankfully I found the flat before hitting the road so I could change it in the "comfort" of the camp site. We weren't sure if it would rain or not, the skies were grey but not really dark. With this in mind we left the towels on the windshield of the car to dry and took off.
Our first stop was going to be Bloomfield, but we did some touring of the sort of north west part of the park first as well as a residential area to the west of the main road. Back on the main road it was gentle grades all the way to Bloomfield with a bit of head and cross wind. Bloomfield was not yet totally awake when we arrived, but the coffee shop was open and had been open long enough to have sold out of muffins. But I did manage to get a delightful mini-loaf of banana bread. Sitting outside with my latte and my loaf there were hints of drops of rain. But we decided to go on towards Wellington.
Once on the road it started to rain a bit more heavily, but we decided to keep going as Wellington is only about 15K from Bloomfield. Entered Bloomfield and I had a near mishap on main street as I braked into a turn and fish tailed. Managed to stay upright on the slippery road, but I think I took a few years off my life. We ducked under a picnic pavillion just in time for the down pour and waited it out. We had planned on heading back to Bloomfield for lunch, but we didn't want to enter a restaurant soaking wet and dirty and get cold sitting around in wet clothes. So we by passed Bloomfield and headed back to Sandbanks to get a shower and some dry clothes.
Remember where the towels were? That's right, we left them on the windshield of the car. We tried to dry them in the campsite dryer but they were just too wet and we were racing the clock as they close the showers at 12:45 to clean them. Drying off with a hot, wet towel is pretty gross but at least we had dry clothes.
We opted to drive back to Bloomfield and we had lunch at JJs. Food was really good, service, not so much. After eating we walked along Main Street. For a small town, Bloomfield has some AMAZING stuff. I bought some maple tea at a little tea shop, we visited this amazing bike store and then headed to buy some ice cream. I had been waiting to try this ice cream. By the time we hit Main Street it had stopped raining, the sun had come out and it was getting warm again. But, despite the turn of the weather, the ice cream store still had a sign that said "Closed due to Rain". I was crushed.
Nothing left to do but get back in the car. Since we had missed getting out to Little Bluff the day before due to some road constuction that we weren't sure we wanted to takle by bike, we decided to drive out. It really is worth the trip. There is a cliff with an excellent look out as well as a wetland area and an amazing pebble beach. The entire beach is made up of greyish-white smooth, flat stones of different sizes; some are the size of a kiwi and others smaller than the nail on your pinky finger. The only wildlife we managed to see was a snake carrying dinner in his mouth. We obviously thwarted his plans to eat as he slithered off into the water waiting for us to leave.
Woke up Thursday morning to grey skies and a flat tire. Thankfully I found the flat before hitting the road so I could change it in the "comfort" of the camp site. We weren't sure if it would rain or not, the skies were grey but not really dark. With this in mind we left the towels on the windshield of the car to dry and took off.
Our first stop was going to be Bloomfield, but we did some touring of the sort of north west part of the park first as well as a residential area to the west of the main road. Back on the main road it was gentle grades all the way to Bloomfield with a bit of head and cross wind. Bloomfield was not yet totally awake when we arrived, but the coffee shop was open and had been open long enough to have sold out of muffins. But I did manage to get a delightful mini-loaf of banana bread. Sitting outside with my latte and my loaf there were hints of drops of rain. But we decided to go on towards Wellington.
Once on the road it started to rain a bit more heavily, but we decided to keep going as Wellington is only about 15K from Bloomfield. Entered Bloomfield and I had a near mishap on main street as I braked into a turn and fish tailed. Managed to stay upright on the slippery road, but I think I took a few years off my life. We ducked under a picnic pavillion just in time for the down pour and waited it out. We had planned on heading back to Bloomfield for lunch, but we didn't want to enter a restaurant soaking wet and dirty and get cold sitting around in wet clothes. So we by passed Bloomfield and headed back to Sandbanks to get a shower and some dry clothes.
Remember where the towels were? That's right, we left them on the windshield of the car. We tried to dry them in the campsite dryer but they were just too wet and we were racing the clock as they close the showers at 12:45 to clean them. Drying off with a hot, wet towel is pretty gross but at least we had dry clothes.
We opted to drive back to Bloomfield and we had lunch at JJs. Food was really good, service, not so much. After eating we walked along Main Street. For a small town, Bloomfield has some AMAZING stuff. I bought some maple tea at a little tea shop, we visited this amazing bike store and then headed to buy some ice cream. I had been waiting to try this ice cream. By the time we hit Main Street it had stopped raining, the sun had come out and it was getting warm again. But, despite the turn of the weather, the ice cream store still had a sign that said "Closed due to Rain". I was crushed.
Nothing left to do but get back in the car. Since we had missed getting out to Little Bluff the day before due to some road constuction that we weren't sure we wanted to takle by bike, we decided to drive out. It really is worth the trip. There is a cliff with an excellent look out as well as a wetland area and an amazing pebble beach. The entire beach is made up of greyish-white smooth, flat stones of different sizes; some are the size of a kiwi and others smaller than the nail on your pinky finger. The only wildlife we managed to see was a snake carrying dinner in his mouth. We obviously thwarted his plans to eat as he slithered off into the water waiting for us to leave.
posted by sweetpea at 1:12 PM
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