While I was still at home, I made plans to do some "real" mountain biking while I was in Bali. I found a solid company called Bali Trailblazers run by an ex-pat British girl, but thought I might find a cheaper local company once I was here. After a few days in Ubud, I realized that, as their website says, they truly are the only company in Bali offering intermediate cross-country riding here rather than tourist day-trips, with "no experience necessary."
On Tuesday I headed out with one guide, Ramang, and one back-up driver, Made (Ma-DAY), on the Batur Crater Rim Ride, the company's classic day ride. Here's a GPS of the route:
I knew the ride was going to stretch me out from the start - we started on asphalt, and my guide was riding pretty quick around the twisty bendy descent to where the singletrack began. At the end of the asphalt, he pointed and said, "We're going up there!" I thought I must have misunderstood because I didn't see any trail. Then Ramang started up a big hill through tall grass, with only the hint of a footpath through it. I followed, and that's where the epic adventure began!
The trails we rode aren't dedicated, maintained mountain bike trails like we would have at home, but are a network of old footpaths between mountain villages. To make the trail routes originally, the guides went riding in the area with a GPS, and then recorded where the footpaths were. They tried to find as much singletrack as they could, but had to use old broken asphalt roads sometimes to connect the singletrack sections. No other bike tour companies use these trails, and since mountain biking isn't too big a sport here, local riders didn't seem to use them either. We didn't see too many people at all - farmers on foot with machetes once in a while, and that's about it...
The ride was absolutely amazing. I don't have pictures of the most spectacular parts of the route because I had to concentrate on riding the trail, and couldn't stop to take photos. You can see that the trail goes along the volcano's crater for about 10k. On the rim, I could see the land sloping down to the sea on the left, and then an almost sheer drop on the right, down to the valley, with the Mt. Batur volcano rising up. I never thought I would ever see scenery like that in my life, especially not from a mountain bike.
The ride itself was challenging, especially riding the rim. There were pretty high winds, and it was pretty narrow in some parts, with maybe a metre or so on each side before the drop-offs. The vegetation along some parts of the rim ride was really tall grass, which made the trail hard to see and blew in my face a lot. It was really exciting! Like you see in the GPS, the ride was a descent, so there were lots of downhills - fast ones!
The surface along the rim was gravelly and rocky in spots, with ruts. My heart was in my mouth as Peter's coaching automatically popped into my brain: "Hold on to your bars and leave the brake alone...", "Look as far ahead as you dare...", "On stuff like this, it's safer to go fast...", "Your bike wants to go straight, don't micromanage..." What an intense and wonderful experience. My arms were shaking from the impact of riding over rough terrain and from nerves, and I crashed once when I tried to brake too hard on the first or second hill.
The terrain and riding surface along our route were pretty varied. We rode steep asphalt sections, singletrack skirting farmers' fields and rice paddies, rural double track beside palm trees and cliffs. The last section of the ride was really interesting - we rode for about half an hour across the lava flow from the last eruption of the volcano. Riding lava flow was a cross between riding a continuous rock garden and a really bumpy dirt road - lots of rocks the size of your fist, but compacted together by big trucks that go out onto the flow to get the rocks for construction. Lots of little ups and downs in that part, and I was about to crack and ask for a break when we came to the end!
What a trip. Riding in Indonesia is probably like surfing here was a few decades ago: barely anyone does it, there's no one else on the trails, and the scenery is magnificent. Bali Trailblazers did a great job arranging the ride and guiding - really professional and friendly.
I had a stupendous day, a life experience I will never forget.
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