Mt Agung

My final two days of cycling in a foreign country have been a relatively easy affair. From one of the most abysmal, roach infested hovels I have ever stayed in in Banyuwengi it was a short ferry trip across the straights to Bali. Denpassar was an easy two days ride from here.

Kuta barely deserves a mention in this story. A place for overweight Australians to behave appalling badly. "You are in a foreign country, show some respect you muppetts!" "And put a shirt on you beer swilling yob, nobody wants to see you beer gut, REALLY!" 'nuff said

So now there are two of us. I met Guy when I surfed his couch in Vientiane and he has met me here in Bali and we are off to Climb Mt Agung, at 3142m the 50th tallest volcano in Indonesia but the highest on Bali.

Despite my reservations (“I reckon I can find my way") we have hired a guide for the exercise. We pick him up on the way to the temple that marks the start of the trek. Soon after we pick him up the battered old Kijiang (the same weight as a land cruiser with 1/4 of the engine capacity) splutters and stalls on the brutal gradient. We finally get out and walk the last five hundred meters and I am quite glad to get away from the smell of burnt clutch.

We begin the climb, past the temple and into the forest on the lower slopes. The trees eventually give way to smaller shrubs and then finally to rocks and lichen. Guy is doing a sterling job, given this is the first time he has been above 1000m. We are three quarters of the way up when he starts to really struggle. There is no track now and we are following our guide as he hops over rocks and boulders. Despite 5 weeks of training he finally reaches the point where he can't climb anymore and still make it down in one piece.

I face a somewhat awkward decision. Instinct tells me that we should all stop and not leave anyone behind. I also look at the conditions though. There is no snow, or extreme heat (it is the middle of the night) we have plenty of food and the guide and I can make it to the top in an hour. The guide suggests this and I trust his judgement. He has, after all, done this climb 15times in the last month alone.
And so we leave a cheerful Guy on a bed of branches with three jackets and three pairs of thermals.

The sunrise on the top of Mt Agung is incredible. As the sun rises I see the 300m drop off the lip of the caldera to the bottom of the crater emerge from the mist. The moon and stars slowly disappear from sight. To the west I can see Lombok and the second highest volcano in Indonesia rising out of the ocean. And to the east I can see as far as Java with Mt Bromo (another volcano) dwarfed by her two larger sisters. Below me I can see the run of the lava as it headed north to the Ocean. Mt Agung last blew her top in 1963 and still steams occasionally.

We have hot coffee and cake made by the guides' wife on the top. He teaches me much about Bali, mountains and life in Indonesia generally. Later on the way down he also becomes the first Indonesian man i have ever seen to pick up rubbish. An extra ordinary young man in many ways.

We find Guy where we had left him, sound asleep between two rocks. He wakes, a little cold but much refreshed and we begin the decent back down to the temple. When we finally reach the bottom we are both exuasted and even the guide looks a little tuckerd out. We had begun climbing at 1am and it is now 11am so it perhaps not so surprising.

Iggy's 6th and penultimate boat trip

And so it has come for the mad dash from the bottom of Sumatra, across Java to board my Bogan air flight from Bali. First there is the matter however of a rather deep stretch of water between Sumatra and Java know as the Sunda Straight.

I tried my hardest to get onto a cargo boat from Bandar Lampung but after several attempts i resolved to riding the hundred or so km to the very tip of the Island. I eventually arrived late in the afternoon and, after giving a rather aggressive homeless man my fried banana i had just bought, i rolled down to the ferry terminal.

1st, i try to get on the wrong ferry, without a ticket. Bad move! I find the correct terminal and pay the princely some of 10 000 rupiah for me and the bike. I look up and wince as i go through the turnstile- stairs. Lots of them. Thankfully one of the rather amused gate staff moves towards the trailer and pics up the wheel. We lurch, somewhat unsteadily up the stairs, up another set and then down the gangway to the hold.. Iggy is on board and i didn't even have to dismember him. Things aren't going to bad.

Igor catches the last of the Sumatran sun on the boat to Java.

Ramadan has started the day before. For those unfamiliar this is the month of dawn to dusk fasting from most things- water, cigarettes, food and sex. There are lots of hungry faces watching the beautiful sunset as Sumatra fades from view. When the sun finally dips below the horizon the food appears and so do the smiles.I soon meet a man and we begin to chat. His English out strips my meager Indonesian so we make do as best we can. He is an Engineer from South Sumatra on his way to Jakarta for business. He also has a van.......

(later)
I roll my thermarest out on the floor of the condo my engineer friend and his two colleagues have rented for the week. It is under the aircon and i sleep blisdfully until 2am when i wake to put more air in the slowly deflating mattress, every silver ling comes with a cloud i guess.

A 17% downhill gradient is not a nice thing to do to your brakes or your rims!

Bread vendors' van, Bandar Lampung

Fisherman casting his net, West Sumatra

Music to my ears

Music

I am now up to my third Mp3 Player for the trip. The first was stolen by some drunk Kazak women in Aqtube. This one contained most of the "pop" music, if you can call it that.

The second was stolen by one of the Orphan kids i was meant to be helping in Bishkek. Ironically this was my "classical" one and also had my teach yourself russian lessons on it. Ah the little blighter that stole that was in for a treat- there was no way to change the tunes anymore! I hope you enjoy your Bartock string quartets, you little runt!

And so i am on my third, very cheap one that i bought in China. It is cheap, really cheap. There isn't even a way to pick the tunes so i have to have the music in the same order everytime. As such things can get a little repeative so once in a while i have to wipe it and start again.

Even though i wipe it once in a while some artisits seem to make fairly regualar apearences .

• Tom waits seems to always wangle his way in there in some form or another.
• Strangley the Haydn cello concerto has also made several appreances.
• Paul Kelly, when i can find him, has been a regualr too.
• Rufus, Martha and Loudan Wainwright are all fairly regular attendees though this is mainly because everytime i ask Matthew to send me music that is what i get! Great stuff though and eminently cycleable.
• Luansa's crazy Irish fiddle playing and Bela Fleck's Banjo goodness to take the cake for cycleability though.

There are those who have been and gone but may yet return...

• Demis Russo and Nana Muskoori. Not sure what on earth possessed me to download them but it ( wince) wasn't so bad
• Soursob Bob. Comic genius though go a little overplayed at the start of the trip
• The Idea of North. Wiped, alas, and nobody puts them online.
• Slim Dusty and Chad Morgan. Slim in small doses, Chad even smaller doses.
  
• Chet Baker. If i ever need reminder that trupet players need teeth ( Chet lost his in a bar fight and a nasty heroin habbit) then this is it.
  

And then there are those that made a hasty exist......

The Mars Volta- talentless aurual masturbation!
Bartok string quartets- Beutiful, just not on a bike.
Lady GaGa- as per the Mars Volta. Though in an interesting twist my malfunctioning mp3 player cut her songs after 3 seconds, replacing her with Bach Chorals. Nice move Mr Mp3 player!
Mahler 9th Symphony. Likewise beautiful, if i was cycling in a coma!


Surf Dudes

As so it comes to how i am sitting and writting this from the west coast of Sumatra. Yesterday had some of the most brutal grandients i have had in a long time. I even snapped a chain trying to get up them! A nice camp on the beach last night turned into an abosolute deluge this morning which lasted much of the day. Stopping in the first town, Krui, i met an Australian surfer. The thought of my first decent conversation in a month and the torrential rain was more than enough to convince me a day off was in order. And so i am off to enjoy an icecream and a Beer, if i can find one. (Ramadan starts tommrrow) Volcano Swim, Central Sumatra

Volcano Swim, Central Sumatra

A Batavian Adventure

My time in foreign lands is fast drawing to a close, at least for the time being. In deciding to go to Indonesia i had to make a choice. There was the easy way- through the center of Sumatra and then to Java. Or the harder but much more interesting way over the mountains to the west coast of Sumatra meaning i would have to miss cycling most of Java. With a fairly high population density and, by all reports some seriously manic drivers and traffic, i decided i wouldn't mind "cheating" a bit through Java if it meant a nicer experience in Sumatra. Indonesia wasn't initially on my radar anyway but it seemed to tempting to miss. 

And so it is that i sit (almost) on the coast of West Sumatra. Gone are the calm waters i had in Malaysia and Thailand. It's a big heavy Indian ocean swell here. Even the water has a temperature less close to urine and something to actually cool off in.   The last 7 days have been quite a contrast. At 2500m i actually slept in my sleeping bag for the first time in months. Camping on the beach yesterday and listening as the breaker thundered i was rolling in my own sweat!  

I have until the 20th of August to make it to Bali. There i must give Igor and Bobbie and really good scrub and put them in a box. They will travel by freight ( hopefully) and i will meet them in Darwin. I then have a few days to climb some volcanoes and give everything i posses a though clean. I can sense the Quarantine dogs at Darwin airport as i write and i know the 2nd the inspector sees where and what i have been up to for the last year i am going to be in for a grilling. The plane arrives at 3am so hopefully its goes for long enough i can walk out into the daylight! 

What a beast! 

10000km from Bishkek
Ever wondered where cinnamon comes from?