Ju-huu-st the two of us…

Gerry, with Ballance bridge in the back.

Monkey business on the train track.

Scary stuff crossing the bridges.

Gerry concentrating hard on another train bridge without railings.

The Manawatu River quite far down.

Tunnel coming up! Torches out.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Abseilers as seen from the train track side.

The last stretch which flattens out towards Ashhurst.

Walkers on the train bridge, as see from the road.

A nice touch – little certificate to show that you’ve completed the walk.

Once a year the Woodville Lions Club organise an approximately 8km walk on the train track through the Manawatu gorge, starting at the Ballance Bridge end (Woodville side) in the east and walking back to the Ashhurst Domain on the west side of the gorge.

I’ve often wondered what the gorge would look like from the other side. If you are on the one side of a river, you always long to see the other side, and vice versa. That’s life, I guess … :). We’ve driven though the gorge on several occasions by road, which is on the one side of the river, while I always look across to the train track, also carved into the cliffs of the gorge, and wonder how the graffiti got onto the concrete slabs underneath the track. With the river way below and near vertical cliffs to get to the track, the willpower of graffiti artists always amazes me. Continue reading →