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 Padang it runs 295 km to Padang; allow about 3 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Padang Pandjang Train Station and back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 Padang Pandjang Train Station.
Padang Panjang is a cool, rain-washed town in the highlands of West Sumatra, in the land of the Minangkabau, at the foot of two volcanoes, Marapi and Singgalang, each rising to nearly three thousand metres. The railway station here is a relic of the Dutch colonial network built in the 1890s to carry coal from the mines of Sawahlunto to the port of Padang. The line had a difficult climb to make from the coast, and part of it used a rack system, with a toothed rail between the running rails and special locomotives gripping it to haul trains up the steep slope.
Read the complete Padang Pandjang Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach Padang Pandjang Train Station. 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.
Back at Coal Storage. That is the ride.
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 → Padang Pandjang Train Station is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Padang Pandjang Train Station → back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → Coal Storage is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.