Cycle Day 1 : Palu to Parigi

It was up at 4:45a this morning for breakfast then we hit the road at 6a heading out of Palu city on the west-ish coast of Sulawesi. It's just where the north arm of Sulawesi meets the rest of the island. Today's goal was an 80 km ride over the mountains to the east coast of the North arm.

My cycle mates are a great group of Aussies full of travel stories and are very entertaining. We have two local guys and an American who serves as the trip leader's assistant and bike mechanic. The is a lead car and a tail car so very safe but I'm finding the drivers here are very considerate. Nothing like you would find in Canada. The only horn sounding is to give warning that they're passing rather than "get out of my way"

We headed out of town for a flat 22 km, stopped for a chat with a lady selling salt...

...then started a 20 km climb. It was a switch back road with not too many outrageous grades BUT it was the longest sustained climb I have ever attempted. The heat was brutal so I ended up riding from shade spot to shade spot cooling off in between. I was last so for a good long time (won't be able to say how long till I upload my gps) it was just me and the trail car. Achock was was kind enough to give me some distance so it felt like a solo ride for a while.

During one of my shade stops, just when I was sitting by a ditch, a woman stopped to get a photo with me and her two daughters. Great fun. Everyone is so happy and welcoming here. People along the road are always waving and shouting hello, drivers will pull up beside you and smile and try some English. They don't get too many white people so we are quite the novelty!

I finally caught up with my group and enjoyed the 18 km "pay back" descent. I swear I wore 1/2 the rear pads away...it was touch and go there for a while as the front and rear brakes were reversed from what I was used to...not sure if it's an Australian thing. It was still a pretty snakey road on the way down necessitating a controlled descent. Think I kept it under 40 km / hr in order to make the turns.

Then it was a a flat 20 km to our hotel in Paragi - right on the ocean. Lunch was waiting for us. All meals including breakfast feature rice and sambal with various curried seafood or chicken. Had a fabulous avocado juice blend. 

I did discover that I forgot my go pro chip adapter so will not be able to time lapse the ride as there is no way to copy the files. 

The rest of the day was chill time then dinner and briefing for tomorrow's ride.

Very pleased that I survived day 1.

Distance: 77.40 km

Time: 5:01

Average speed: 15.43 km/hr

Maximum speed: 38.02

Elevation: 870 meters