Photos of the Rest Day
in Bengkulu – Sumatra
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Monthly Archives: August 2014
Photos Published
I have started to publish the first set of photos taken during the initial two weeks of the Sumatra Sutra section. A Thumbnail view is available that let’s you browse the photos individually and self paced or a slideshow mode, with a 5 seconds delay between each picture.
You can find them under the Photo Tab or via the Tag Cloud and slideshow tag. I’ll add more to the respective sections …
Breakfast in Bengkulu
A national breakfast at the rest day. Bike wash and maintenance next. Thereafter pickup laundry and chill out.
2014-08-30
Stage 11: Sumatra
| Seblat to Bengkulu | |||||
| Date: | 30-08-2014 | Time: | 05:49 h | Σ Time: | 65:10 h |
| Distance: | 125 km | Σ km: | 1371 km | Temp: | 23/38 °C |
| Up: | 1130 m | Σ Up: | 13583 m | Calories: | 3255 kcal |
| Down: | 1135 m | Σ Down: | 13515 m | Σ kcal: | 31318 kcal |
| Conditions: | The rolling hills continued. Ups and downs all day long. Again a very hot day. Enough opportunities to stop and refresh. | ||||
Somehow the ride felt harder than yesterday. This could be due to the facts, that it was the 6th long riding day in a row, there was no warm-up, as the rollers started immediately after camp and the cooler morning temperatures were soon gone by the hot sun rising into a clear sky. Today we cruised along the coastline most of the day. Only a few short deviations into the fields of rubber trees and again palm oil plantations. Empty and fully loaded trucks we passing us all day long. Still, most of the drivers are very careful, when passing us. Only a few maniacs couldn’t wait a few seconds for a safe passage and squeezed themselves through the traffic. Lunch was setup nicely at the beach, and fresh coconuts were served, which let me forget that there were again no mangoes … unfortunately, it is not the right season for my favorite fruit.
The black-red-golden banners vanished today, because we left West Sumatra. Bengkulu is the name of South-West Sumatra province, we entered today and also the name of the province capital city. The Splash Hotel in Bengkulu is great, with the well deserved comfort after a tough week of cycling.
Fries!!
School is out
Just rode through a village when the school kids had a break. I stopped at the road side and they all came running down the hill. No way to stop them.
So it was time for a counting lesson:
satu, dua, tiga …
I made their day and they made mine
Tweet ##transoceaniaMessage in a Bottle
2nd generation message system. If you ever get lost in the digital age. You still can bottle your text nessages and drop it into the sea the traditional way.
Riding the Van
Finally I am on the van. Good feeling to ride in comfort with A/C and filtered air.
No worries, we are all fine and in good mood. Just using the shuttle to breakfast which is a few km away from camp and back from where we came yesterday. 123 km today, Hotel at the beach, all comfort, tidal pool … yeah, back to civilization!
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Sometimes it is worth to deviate from the given route and explore the neighborhood. Chelsea and Nellie were ‘sweeping’ me, when I asked them to follow me followed me on a detour along the beach. First we had to cross a kind of fragile suspension bridge 
before we got to the beach, where fishermen pulled in their heavy net. Unfortunately the heavy load was more jellyfish than others, but even the smallest fish was collected from the glibber mass. I asked the women on the beach, if there is another way to get back to the main road further south so we can cycle a bit on the beach. They seemed to understand my 
drawing in the sand and confirmed. We cycled quite a distance along the beach. The women followed us on their scooter. Finally they turned left into a village and to our surprise invited us to their home. Chelsea enjoyed the little one and the little one Chelsea’s sun glasses, until she started to cry, being scared by my camera? We soon had to leave for the final kilometers to the designated camp site.
Whereas Nellie was not aware of her nice
‘sandy’ henna tattoo that she developed during the ride on the beach.