On Sunday I went on a tramp to the Pack Horse Track, near
Thames on Coromandel Peninsular.
The
track was originally a pack horse track for the logging of kauri
trees that went on in the 19th century. Hence the name.
The weather was hot, but there was a breeze most of the day, so we
didn't get as hot as we might have done. We were very pleased about
that.
I
have never walked on a track made of stone before. I think it was
taken from the surrounding area to create the track. When we were out
of the trees, we could feel the heat coming up off the stones. Some
of it was laid like a cobble stone road, but not even, so, it was
quite hard to walk on sometimes. There were stone stairs too that had
been carved out of the rocks. Everyone's feet were very tired by the
end of 12 ks.
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| Stone stair case |
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| A rock formation on the track |
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| Views from the track |
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| A rock fall (not where we stopped) |
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| Another view of the area |
Some
of the track had been badly carved out by the rain. I don't think it
would be a pleasant walk in the wet.
There
were a couple of spots with signs to say we were entering a slip
danger zone. Please don't stop it said. So we had morning tea at one
of the spots. We like to live on the edge.
The
pack horse track went up quite steeply and then for a change it went
up a bit more. Every now and then it went up steeper, just to keep
us interested. Whew! we were soon very hot and sweaty.
We
had lunch in a nice clearing called Hydro Camp. After lunch, we set
off along the Billy Goat Track. Still stony and still up for a while.
I kept thinking we are supposed to be going down. Eventually it did,
and it went down really steeply on a stone stair case. Part of the
track follows a rail line for a while, that had been used in the
logging days to send the logs down on trolleys. They have the same sort of thing on the tracks around Mt Te Aroha where they took gold out in the 19th Century.
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| the remains of the rail incline |
It took about 5 hours all together, so a big day out, but very enjoyable. I didn't have stiff legs the next day, which was nice, but I did get tired feet by the end of work on Monday. I was glad I only did 4 hours.
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