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.
158 km from Talawi to Talawi, about 2 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Batu Tabal Train Station and back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.
Sawahlunto sits in a steep green bowl in the hills of West Sumatra, and until the 1890s there was nothing here but forest and a few villages. Then the Dutch found out what lay beneath. A Dutch geologist, Willem Hendrik de Greve, surveyed the Ombilin valley and reported a huge coal deposit in 1868, and the colonial government decided to exploit it, building a mine, a railway down to the coast at Padang, and a town to house the workers. The first coal went out in 1892. The town grew around the mine, with European quarters, a power station, a hospital, a mosque and houses laid out on the hillsides.
Read the complete Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto comes up about 29 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 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Batu Tabal Train Station. Next is back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, late in the day. Next is 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 at Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping. That is the ride.
Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping → Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → Batu Tabal Train Station is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Batu Tabal Train Station → back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto → Salak Power Plant and Ranith Water Pumping is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.