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 Parit Malintang it runs 159 km to Parit Malintang; allow about 3 h 05 of riding. On the way it passes Batu Tabal Train Station, Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping and back through Batu Tabal Train Station. The line favours views over speed.
Kayu Tanam is a small mountain-foot town on the old road and railway between Padang and the highlands of West Sumatra, the place where the flat coastal plain gives up and the Bukit Barisan range begins. The station is a relic of the Dutch era, when the colonial railway pushed inland to bring coal from the Ombilin mines at Sawahlunto down to the port at Padang. The line climbed the steep Anai gorge and, higher up, used a toothed rack rail to manage the gradient, and the whole system was recognised by UNESCO in 2019 as part of the Ombilin coal mining heritage.
Read the complete Kayu Tanam Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kayu Tanam Train Station is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 36 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 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping. Next is back through 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 through Batu Tabal Train Station, late in the day. Next is Kayu Tanam Train Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kayu Tanam Train Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kayu Tanam Train Station. That is the ride.
Kayu Tanam Train Station → Batu Tabal Train Station is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → back through Batu Tabal Train Station is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Batu Tabal Train Station → Kayu Tanam Train Station is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.