Details Where: , Start/finish: Manado to Makassar Distance: 1,480km (920 miles) Pictures: Dave Barden

58 cycle APRIL/MAY 2019 SULAWESI GREAT RIDES

DAVE BARDEN Cycling UK member Dave is cycling around the world Great in stages, riding one leg each Rides year. AFTER A DISASTER The month before Dave Barden was due to tour Sulawesi in Indonesia, the island was hit by an earthquake and tsunami…

here’s been a big earthquake and tsunami Do it yourself was a Sunday morning and I was joined by a exactly where you were going!” said my Getting there local leisure cyclist, also David. We chatted in a “T partner Frances. “You won’t be going now, mixture of languages before he sped away. will you?!” Three flights are Over the next five days, I cycled through My destination was Sulawesi, an oddly-shaped required to reach undulating coastal landscapes, past wooden Indonesian island almost as large as mainland Manado, the largest houses, coconut and banana trees, agricultural UK. My proposed itinerary would visit some areas city in the north of workers carrying huge knives, and ox-carts affected by the disaster. Should I go or cancel? Sulawesi. Garuda pulling piles of coconuts. Outside mosques and I contacted tour agencies, checked the Foreign Indonesia (garuda- churches, loudspeakers entreated drivers to drop and Commonwealth Office advice, and read indonesia.com) and money into earthquake-appeal buckets. articles on the ethics of travelling to areas hit by KLM (klm.com/home/ I had a tent with me but often stayed in hotels. disasters. They all suggested the same thing: go. gb/en) are both bike In one I met a group of three forest rangers who, friendly, and it cost me later that same day, took me for a delicious fish A WARM WELCOME less than £50 in all to dinner. They were in uniform and explained the My flight from Jakarta to Manado banked around transport my boxed- importance of their work protecting the wildlife the north coast of Sulawesi, gaps in the clouds bike and panniers. and trees in National Parks. It was serious stuff: revealing deep green, forested hills, cleared here (Total cost of flights: they had a machine-gun in the boot of their car. and there for villages clustered around churches £847.18.) and mosques. No visa is required to GULF OF TOMINI It was hot and humid in late October, so I visit Indonesia for up From Gorontalo, I took the ferry to Pagimana in cycled into the countryside to acclimatise, past to 30 days. Hotels and . The coastal road was littered motor trishaws playing loud dangdut music. The guesthouses (losmen) with large reptilian roadkill. I passed small volcanic island of Manado Tua loomed in the are about £10 in many fishing villages: houses on stilts over the tranquil distance in the Celebes Sea behind Bunaken small towns. Molucca Sea. Since it was Sunday again, the small Island, a world-renowned diving centre. As I outrigger boats were pulled up onto the shore. passed through the pretty village of Tiwoho, I Thousands of small, silvery fish were drying on had my first experience of the generous nature tarpaulins laid out in front yards. of the Minahasans. “Hello mister – come in Over a fish lunch I chatted with Emrai, and eat!” I shared food, laughter, photos, and a young man whose aunt had died in the great Sulawesi coffee with the Rotan family. liquifacted ground in , and whose The following day, carrying plenty mother had decided to move far away from of water, I set out on my tour proper. It the horrific memories to eastern Sumatra.

CYCLINGUK.ORG cycle 59 GREAT RIDES SULAWESI

Fact file Tropical touring

Distance: 920 miles, averaging 42 per day of cycling. Route: Manado to Gorontalo, ferry to Pagimana, then , Tagolu, Tentena, Pendolo, Palopo, Rantepao, Makale, Enrekang, Pangkajene, Parepare, Maros, and Makassar. Conditions: Humid. Roads were mostly tarmac or concrete. Traffic was light except for in larger towns,

Main photo: Lunch stop where congestion kept Bottom: Traditional Tongkonan speeds low. houses in Tana Toraja Touring tips Accommodation: Planning a trip? Hotels booked on Bounce your ideas off arrival, plus one Cycling UK members: mosque and three cyclinguk.org/ Emrai, still clearly in shock, was homes. touring-expedition- travelling to support her there. Bike used: 19-year- forum Rainclouds threatened as I left old Orbit Romany. Ampana and rode along the coast. When Maps: Sulawesi the downpour arrived, I pulled my bike under – World Mapping the shelter of a small warung (restaurant). Tim Project 1:800,000. and Martin, German tourists from Leipzig, were Google Maps. Garmin there, drinking coffee. They were two of only a Edge 1000. handful of foreigners I saw in Sulawesi. I’m glad I had: Continuing down the coast, I rode through Google Translate, silk pretty villages filled with flowers and dotted sleeping bag liner, with posters featuring smiling or serious-looking chamois cream. candidates for next spring’s elections. Eventually I the guides took me to see a Torajian funeral, one Next time I would: arrived at the northern end of Lake . of most distinctive features of the culture. Not take so many The ride along the western shore of Lake Poso In Enrekang, after continuing south, I met my warm weather clothes was a day of two halves. It began easily, among first and only touring cyclists in Sulawesi: Ed and and remember my cocoa plantations. Then the road surface started Hanneke from the Netherlands. On the flat, busy, camera charger. to deteriorate and the gradient steepened. Near Trans Sulawesi Highway, we were able to cover Further reading: the top, I met three young men from Palu driving 70 miles with ease. A Brief History of a van. They were taking donated clothing and My final pedalling was not on my own bike Indonesia by Tim other needed items to victims in their city. but on a cycle rickshaw. I delivered its usual Hannigan. Indonesia Next day the road twisted and climbed into a driver, Hendra, safely to his berth near my hotel. by Elizabeth Pisani. Like deep forest at the base of Mount Balease. It was My Dutch acquaintances from a few days earlier the Moon and the Sun filled with the sound of crickets, frogs, birds and happened to be passing and looked bemused. by Stanley Harsha. mammals. Hundreds of butterflies – red, yellow “I’ve run out of money,” I joked, “and and black – fluttered by as I sweated up the hills. had to find a job!”

SOUTH SULAWESI Arriving in Rantepao, I booked into an hotel to use as a base for exploring this high-profile More info tourist area. There were no others tourists. Dave’s blog about his round- The two guides I spoke to had both suffered the-world journey is at: financially from cancellations caused by davebardenworldcyclist. blogspot.com concerns for safety after the earthquake. One of

60 cycle DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020