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 Solok it runs 146 km to Solok; allow about 3 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping, Batu Tabal Train Station and back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Between the lake at Singkarak and the rice plain near Solok, the Sumatran railway that carried coal to the sea runs through some of the quietest and prettiest country in West Sumatra. It was an engineering challenge, with a steep climb handled in places by a toothed rack rail and tunnels cut through the hills, and UNESCO now treats the whole network as heritage.
Read the complete Railway System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Railway System is where the day begins. 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.
Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Batu Tabal Train Station. Next is back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping, late in the day. Next is Railway System.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Railway System write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Railway System. That is the ride.
Railway System → Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → Batu Tabal Train Station is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → Railway System is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.