May 23rd, 2011
Today began the official day of the cycling portion of BikeJava. When I woke up I found a shirt on my bike from Rizki, a Bike2Campus member. I was really touched because the day before he was asking me about a basic profile like name, age, blood type – then in the morning there was a shirt with that information on the back and on the front it read “Ride Hard”. We started later than usual because of our late night of packing, short first leg, and a hope of getting rain jackets from Eiger in Jakarta. Unfortunately, they were out and once Tense came to drop off some bike patches we were off at 12 noon.
Bike2Work Friends Saw Us Off (left to right) Tense, Mark, Bu Naning, Heather, Mas Wang. |
5 km later, we stopped to eat lunch... Only because we didn’t have a good breakfast other than bisquits and Soyjoy, and Mas Wang had to fix his front panniers at a local motorbike repair shop. Finally we hit the road again and passed by my school. I had to stop and take pictures in front, but we were already running late so we didn’t bike into school – I got to see some former students like Fafy, Jeann, and Rangga for a quick second.
Enjoying a Mid-ride Coconut. |
A Quick Stop at My Former School for a Photo. |
Gowes BikeJava! |
Lucy, Do Not Read This Section.
50 km later. We arrived in Bogor only to get rained on. Bogor is known as the “Rainy City”. We stopped for about 2 hours hoping it would stop. We were running far behind and despite the darkness we decided to push on to a night ride. Fortunately, we brought our headlamps/bike lights from Eiger and started the climb. The ride was pretty spectacular with climbs and descents in cool weather and a sudden change from populated cities to a forest feeling.
Around 8pm we made it to SPN Lido in Sukabumi to meet with Sita and Mahmud from Satria Muda. We thought the night was over, but we had another 5 km to go up steep roads through a forest area. Turned off onto a mud road and walked our bikes through rice paddies to homes against the mountain wall. Amazing! Our dinner was made from locally produced rice and freshly harvested baby corn. I finished the day off with some medicine for muscle soreness from Dr. Mala (thanks Dr. M!) who helped with our BikeJava medical needs. It was the best sleep I’ve had in the last month.
Waiting Out the Rain in Bogor. |
I can’t believe it, 51 days of planning and it’s finally a reality. Thanks to everyone who has played a role in BikeJava.
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I read it!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad nothing bad happened.
We all in rumah sepeda praying for your safety. Keep us updated with everything and anything.
Hugs for heather and mas wang.