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.
332 km from Tanjungampalu to Tanjungampalu, about 5 h of riding. The stops in between: Padang Pandjang Train Station, Coal Storage and back through Padang Pandjang Train Station. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Soengai Doerian is the old Dutch spelling of Sungai Durian, the river of durians, and the name is one of the nicer details in a story that is mostly about hard labour. The mine here opened in the early years of the Ombilin coalfield, when the colonial government cut shafts into the hillsides around Sawahlunto and dragged out the black seams that fed steamships and railways across the Indies. Of the old workings in the region, this is one of the places where you can feel what the industry actually asked of people.
Read the complete Soengai Doerian Mining Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Soengai Doerian Mining Site 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 73 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.
145 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 Soengai Doerian Mining Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Soengai Doerian Mining Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Soengai Doerian Mining Site. That is the ride.
Soengai Doerian Mining Site → Padang Pandjang Train Station is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → Soengai Doerian Mining Site is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.