CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Kota Kinabalu it runs 109 km to Ranau; allow about 1 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Tamparuli and Kundasang. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Borneo Kundasang Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Kota Kinabalu sits on the north-west tip of Borneo, with the South China Sea on one side and the jungle-covered Crocker Range on the other, and on a clear morning the peak of Mount Kinabalu, at 4,095 metres, floats above the clouds to the east. The city, the capital of Sabah, has about four hundred and fifty thousand people, a waterfront lined with seafood restaurants, a lively Filipino market selling dried fish and handicrafts, and a string of islands just offshore that make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. The sunsets over the sea are famously good.
Read the complete Kota Kinabalu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kota Kinabalu is where the day begins. Next is Tamparuli.
Tamparuli is a small town on the road from Kota Kinabalu toward Mount Kinabalu, about thirty kilometres from the coast. It is the last place of any size before the road leaves the plains and begins to climb into the Crocker Range, and it behaves like one: a busy main street, a market, lines of shophouses, and a lot of hungry traffic going both ways. The town is known across Sabah for its suspension bridge over the river, immortalised in a song that every Malaysian of a certain age seems to know. It is a modest thing, but it has an honest charm.
Read the complete Tamparuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tamparuli comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kundasang.
Kundasang is a highland town below the huge shoulder of Mount Kinabalu, which at 4,095 metres is the highest mountain in Borneo and one of the most striking in Southeast Asia. The town sits well above a thousand metres, and the climate is a surprise to anyone who has come up from the coast: cool, damp, often wrapped in cloud, with farms of cabbage, carrots and tomatoes on slopes so steep it seems unreasonable. When the mist clears, the peak appears above the town in a long ridge of granite, and for a few minutes everyone stops to look. The mountain and the park around it are a World Heritage Site, recognised for its extraordinary plant life, including a great number of orchids and pitcher plants.
Read the complete Kundasang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach Kundasang. Next is Kinabalu Park.
Mount Kinabalu stands 4,095 metres above the north of Borneo, and it dominates the landscape from every angle, a huge granite dome that appears and disappears in cloud. The park at its foot, Kinabalu Park, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the richest places for plants on earth, with thousands of species, including orchids, rhododendrons and pitcher plants. The park headquarters sits at about 1,500 metres, so the air is cool and often damp, and the forest around is moss-covered and dripping. The nearest towns are Ranau, about eighteen kilometres east, and Kota Belud, further to the west, so fuel and supplies should be taken there.
Read the complete Kinabalu Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kinabalu Park closes the day.
Kota Kinabalu → Tamparuli is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tamparuli → Kundasang is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kundasang → Kinabalu Park is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.