Sanur to Kintamani
From the lap of luxury, to the lap of the gods
The day
started with breakfast, then a meeting with Isabelle - the tour operator. She
went over the details of our next 2 weeks, and introduced us to Ketut - legendary
mountain biking guide - and Made our driver.
It is
so good to be semi-pro!
She
assured us that the rest of our accommodation would not be so luxurious: no
more hotel branded mineral water, no more choice of danish for breakfast, no
more icy cold beers delivered to the pool deck with complimentary nuts, no
library, and definitely no art gallery.
The 2
hour drive from Sanur to Kintamani saw us winding through rural Balinese lushy
lushness; rice paddies, vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and jungle filled
river valleys - fifty shades of green.
When we
arrived at the start point for the ride we were met by a Dutchman called Eric;
he was to join us for this day's riding only. He was jolly, and kept us amused
by falling off at regular intervals.
The
first half of the ride up until the lunch break was fairly intense. It started
with tight, slippery, overgrown single track following the rim of the Mt. Batur
crater. Neither of us had been on a bike for a few weeks, and as we had just
ascended from sea level to 1700m, lungs were soon gasping for more oxygen to
supply legs which were burning, and screaming for more.
After
dropping from the rim down into the caldera and a welcome stop for lunch, the
rest of the ride was considerably easier. Rough jeep tracks were interspersed
with sweet single track through vegetable fields. The last 3 kilometres was
along a crushed lava track used by quarry trucks to remove rocks from the 1993
lava field. It was hot, dry, dusty and surreal. Luckily there were some ladies
trying to sell us trinkets where our vehicles were parked, 'cause that’s just
what you need at the end of a hard ride - souvenirs!
Eric
was so enthused about the ride, he considered another day of riding. We said
this first day was complimentary, but he would have to pay us or buy us beers
if he came again.
For
those playing at home we rode 27k in 2:15, ascending 422m and descending 1063m
http://app.strava.com/activities/72498823
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