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 362 km round trip from Padang - roughly 5 h 34 in the saddle. It goes by way of Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping, Railway System and Batu Tabal Train Station. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping.
Coal built this corner of West Sumatra, and the buildings at Salak and the Ranith pumping station are part of the machinery that moved it. The Dutch colonial government developed the Ombilin coalfield after a geologist found rich seams near Sawahlunto in the nineteenth century, and the whole system of mine, railway, power plant and port was later recognised by UNESCO as the Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto. A power station gave the mines electricity, and a pumping station supplied water, because a steam age needs both.
Read the complete Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping. Next is Railway System.
Between the lake at Singkarak and the rice plain near Solok, the Sumatran railway that carried coal to the sea runs through some of the quietest and prettiest country in West Sumatra. It was an engineering challenge, with a steep climb handled in places by a toothed rack rail and tunnels cut through the hills, and UNESCO now treats the whole network as heritage.
Read the complete Railway System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Railway System, about halfway. Next is Batu Tabal Train Station.
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 sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Railway System.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Railway System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Railway System comes up about 231 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 260 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping. Next is back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 362 km.
Coal Storage → Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → Railway System is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Railway System → Batu Tabal Train Station is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → back through Railway System is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Railway System → back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → Coal Storage is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.