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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 334 km round trip from Tanjungampalu - roughly 4 h 17 in the saddle. It goes by way of 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.
Colonial mining needed more than brute strength. It needed men who could read a gauge, repair a pump and keep records, and so the mining school at Sawahlunto is a small clue to how the Dutch tried to build a local skilled workforce. Education in the Indies was tightly rationed, and a technical school was a rare opening for the sons of Indonesian families, even if the best jobs stayed with European engineers.
Read the complete Mining School write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mining School 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 72 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.
144 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 Mining School.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mining School write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Mining School. That is the ride.
Mining School → Padang Pandjang Train Station is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → Mining School is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.