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.
A 336 km round trip from Rambatan - roughly 4 h 12 in the saddle. It goes by way of Coal Storage, Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto and back through Coal Storage. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
High in the mountains of West Sumatra, a railway line built by the Dutch in the late nineteenth century snakes between volcanoes, lakes and rice terraces. It was laid to carry coal from the mines of Sawahlunto down to the port of Padang, and the whole system, mines, company town and railway, forms the Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, listed by UNESCO in 2019. Batu Tabal is one of the small stations along the route, near the shores of Lake Singkarak, where the line runs right along the water's edge.
Read the complete Batu Tabal Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Batu Tabal Train Station is where the day begins. Next is Coal Storage.
Coal needs a harbour, and for the Ombilin mines the harbour was at Padang, on Sumatra's west coast, about five kilometres from the site. The Dutch built a deep-water port in the bay south of the town, naming it Emmahaven after the queen consort, and the railway from Sawahlunto ended here at the quay and the storage yards. Today the port is known as Teluk Bayur, and some of the old coal-handling structures can still be seen.
Read the complete Coal Storage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coal Storage comes up about 93 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.
Sawahlunto sits in a steep green bowl in the hills of West Sumatra, and until the 1890s there was nothing here but forest and a few villages. Then the Dutch found out what lay beneath. A Dutch geologist, Willem Hendrik de Greve, surveyed the Ombilin valley and reported a huge coal deposit in 1868, and the colonial government decided to exploit it, building a mine, a railway down to the coast at Padang, and a town to house the workers. The first coal went out in 1892. The town grew around the mine, with European quarters, a power station, a hospital, a mosque and houses laid out on the hillsides.
Read the complete Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto. Next is back through Coal Storage.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coal Storage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Coal Storage, late in the day. Next is Batu Tabal Train Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Batu Tabal Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Batu Tabal Train Station. That is the ride.
Batu Tabal Train Station → Coal Storage is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coal Storage → Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → back through Coal Storage is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Coal Storage → Batu Tabal Train Station is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.