Well, it seemed like forever since the poor old Tenere has been let off its leash and taken for a decent gravel ride so today was the day to fix that.

Yesterday I'd been trying to chase down a slow leak in the front tyre and didn't really get anywhere so after checking it again this morning I decided that I was good to go.

I'd posted a note up on FB last night to see if there was anyone else out there interested in a ride and my bait hooked me a Rodney again.  We agreed to meet in town and when I got there I discovered that his 650 had magically turned into an 800 - nice!

We left Palmy with a little bit of moisture in the air and made for the track.  Clambering up the hill we seemed to be climbing up into the clouds and at the top we were having to part them as we rode...
Even the constabulary were concerned with the weather...

I never even saw him there...Dropping down the other side of the hill we took Tararua Road for our first taste of gravel and as I was in front I got to chase all the sheep off the roads for Rodney - it is very rare that there are not animals out on this little bit of gravel.

We carried on through to Pahiatua and then turned Eastwards to make our way onto Pahiatua-Pongaroa road.  Here we ate up some tarmac before turning off onto Pori road.

Pori Road starts off as a narrow sealed road before turning into gravel.  At about the same time as the road changed to gravel we ran into fog again and visibility was pretty limited. &n...