Over Dansey’s Pass

3 - 5 Mar

I’m now heading further south to Dunedin. The first two days the road undulates gently through hilly countryside and around beautiful lakes but is otherwise quite uneventful. The second day in late afternoon I arrive in a cute little town of Duntroon. I decide to leave the main road here and head for the mountains and over Dansey’s Pass. I stay overnight in a campground about 15 km from Duntroon on the way to the pass and start the climb the next day.

The weather is beautiful with sunshine and no wind when I’m leaving the next morning. There are actually two passes on the way. The climb to the first one starts right from the campground and it’s a corker, relatively short but very steep one. From there the road descends back to the river and then starts to climb over the actual Dansey’s Pass. This time it’s a gradual climb over several kilometers that takes me nearly to 1000 metres above the sea level. The scenery is amazing with lots of great views and there are hardly any cars at all. When I reach roughly half-way to the pass a strong head wind starts to blow and some clouds gather just over the pass on the horizon. The last two kilometers are really tough going against the strong wind and I have to get off and push the bike. When I finally reach the summit it’s cloudy, very windy and cold. I stop and put on warm clothes. On the way down from the pass I have to paddle to keep going downhill and the wind doesn’t stop until the end of the day. I wanna stay overnight in Naseby