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.
A 333 km round trip from Tanjungampalu - roughly 4 h 10 in the saddle. On the way it passes Batu Tabal Train Station, Tinggi Bridge, Coal Storage and back through Tinggi Bridge. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 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 48 km in. Next is Tinggi Bridge.
Sumatra's western highlands are the home of the Minangkabau, a matrilineal people whose houses have roofs curved like buffalo horns, and the road up from the coast at Padang to the cool plateau around Bukittinggi is one of the great short climbs in Indonesia. It passes through the Anai valley, past a waterfall that falls close to the roadside, and through the little railway halt of Kayu Tanam, where the old line from Padang once began its steep ascent on its way to the Ombilin coal fields. That railway, built by the Dutch in the late nineteenth century with a rack section to climb the grade, is now part of the UNESCO-listed Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.
Read the complete Tinggi Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
96 km in you reach Tinggi Bridge. 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.
Coal Storage, about halfway. Next is back through Tinggi Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tinggi Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tinggi Bridge sits at 193 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 241 km in. 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.
Mining School closes the day.
Mining School → Batu Tabal Train Station is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → Tinggi Bridge is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tinggi Bridge → Coal Storage is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coal Storage → back through Tinggi Bridge is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tinggi Bridge → back through Batu Tabal Train Station is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Batu Tabal Train Station → Mining School is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.