Te Araroa (day 21) - Purora Forest Park to Taumarunui [Timber Trail] / mile 637

Day two of walking along the Timber Trail. Today the path was mostly flat as it followed the route of the timber railway, there was a lot of rusting tracks and wheels scattered by the trail quite ab atmospheric detail. A couple of suspension bridges linked the path and it was a joy to bounce up and down while walking through them. This section was as immaculately maintained as the one yesterday.
I set off early, the main bulk of cyclist caught up with me around 11am, everybody was going to the end of the trail 45km ahead. I didn't encounter anything worth mentioning during the walk other than perhaps two tiny wild pigs, I doubt they were of the 'micro' type, I was glancing around checking if their mother wasn't about to charge me. Both piglets vanished into the forest once I got too close.
There was a lot of great information on the boards standing along the track, here are few about vermin control, hunting and venison farming I found particularly interesting:
At about 3pm I reached the end of Timber Trail, I had a short break at the parking lot where cyclists were dismounting and going home. Here I've met an American hiker with trail name Robe. He finished few long distance trails in USA and had a lot of critical thoughts about Te Araroa. I guess the American hiking culture spoiled him and he wasn't particularly happy about not being treated as a 'special person, doing something amazing' like he would in US. We talked for a while, then I topped up my water and went on.
It started to rain, there was few dozen swallows flying across the road as I walked pass, I always enjoyed looking at their aerial acrobatics. Just before 6pm I arrived at the campsite, or rather a patch of grass between gravel road and a railway tracks. It was recommended by a user of my trail app, unfortunately more of a miss than a hit. Either way I was only few miles away from Taumarunui where I planned to have a Nero (nearly zero day) tomorrow.

Sunday, 10th of December 2023. Two months and four days to go.

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