CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
331 km from Tanjungampalu to Tanjungampalu, about 4 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Padang Pandjang Train Station, Coal Storage and back through Padang Pandjang Train Station. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Sawahlunto is a town built in a bowl, and the company that built it made no secret about who was in charge. After coal was found in the valley in the 1860s, the Dutch colonial government set out to turn a handful of rice fields, which is what Sawahlunto means, into a mining centre, and the town grew up in layers around the pits. The officers' houses sat on the high ground with space and shade, while the labourers' quarters crowded closer to the work.
Read the complete Company Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Company Town is where the day begins. 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.
Padang Pandjang Train Station comes up 73 km in. 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.
146 km in you reach Coal Storage. Next is back through Padang Pandjang Train Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Padang Pandjang Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Padang Pandjang Train Station, late in the day. Next is Company Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Company Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Company Town. That is the ride.
Company Town → Padang Pandjang Train Station is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Padang Pandjang Train Station → Coal Storage is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coal Storage → back through Padang Pandjang Train Station is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Padang Pandjang Train Station → Company Town is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.