Cycle Day 3 : Poso to Siuri

I had passed on dinner last night due to my queasiness - settled for some fruit. Alex the American assistant convince me to stop taking the doxycycline anti malarials due to the increased risk of heat stroke and up my bug spray and skin coverage. This morning after 2 days of no pills I finally got my appetite back. Eggs instead of curry helped. I do love the flavouring and the spice level of our food but when your stomach is a little hinky I like plain food.

Road works in the area changed the plan of the day to a 9a departure. Our early 6a starts mean we avoid the worst heat. At 9a it was HOT. We were on the edge of 

Poso on the ocean last night - this morning we skirted the edge of this grimy town and headed south. Rice fields and mountains prevailed. Our first 20 km was thankfully flat-ish. I decided to ride until the the nausea or my stomach contents passed. Cheery waves and calls of "hello missus," "hello mister," "where you go?" followed. 

Alex rode with me for a while and I checked in with him on my "speed." Yesterday one of the other riders asked me to consider using the van more on hills so I wouldn't hold the group up. This was after he saw me push my bike up a short stretch of hill which I did for my safety so cars could pass. Since he was nice about how he said it I decided to not tell him to stuff it. I asked Alex about what the "group" policy was regarding this as I'm very stubborn and wanted to to do the climbs at my pace. Which isn't *that* slow its just that I get over heated and stop to cool off more frequently. Also was clear that I don't want the group to wait. Alex said he could see I was a strong rider and could keep pace outside of long hot climbs so I was to do what ever I wanted and they would support that. 

Awesome, as I quite like Alex who would be my personal sweep. We had some interesting conversations this morning on politics and religion. He's an American who's lived in Indonesia full time for 11 years and loves it. Distracted me from my nausea. 

We came up on our first break at about 22 km under a canopy near some small shops, houses and a school. Colin our leader said its special to say a few words in Indonesian in response to the shouts from the locals. My greetings of "selemat sore," (good afternoon) sent a group girls into such a fit of giggles I thought they were going to pee themselves. Must have been like seeing a monkey talk!

More road closures were ahead forcing an hour long wait. This was great for me. I cooled off had a banana and even had a donut. For every planned stop the two drivers scout out local cakes which are quite nice. Yesterday had a sticky rice bun with a coconut and Palm sugar centre. My donut today had chocolate sprinkle but wasn't too sweet. Mandarins encased in dark green skins and bananas are the most prevalent fruit at the rest stops. The two drivers arrange coffee and tea and then ensure everyone's bottle is full of water or Pocari Sweat before we take off again.

Decided to take on the next leg feeling almost normal after a good break. It was an 11 km ascent with a nice grade. My rental bike has a nice range of low gears for this terrain. There was also more shade and a nice cooling head wind. Even managed to keep up a conversation with Alex as we trundled along.

The rice fields gave way to mountains and jungle. Every once in a while you hit a flat section of road where migrants from Java have set up their road side establishments. Usually the same drinks - coke, fanta, water - along with cell phone SIM cards.

Rounded a corner at the top of the hill, caught my tire on the edge of the road and over I went. Fortunately I managed to roll out of the fall and got away with a scraped knee. I downed two ibuprofen, sprayed my knee with some antibiotic and we were on our way.

Looked like the road closures were due to recent landslides. The short sharp mountains combined with clear cutting make some road cuts unstable. Since the uphill terrain looked quite dusty and gravelly when we caught up to the others, I opted for a van ride only to the top of the hill and through the construction. The lead car dude took my bike and disappeared leaving me, Colin and Bev in the sweep car and kept going with our bikes to the lunch stop. Fortunately Chris, Bev's husband decided he had enough after a longish hill and stopped. I took his bike happily and after a short uphill rise, reaped the benefit of his hard work with a nice long downhill into Tentena for lunch.

They did a tastey carrot, bean and something green dish here with some crispy flat fish that you eat bones and all, rice, of course and a lovely non-flammable curry chicken. All served on a shaded pavilion over a fish pond on the river that drains lake Poso to the sea.

Word came down that the road was in too rough condition to be undertaken at dark. Access was closed till 6p which, this close to the equator, equals sunset every night. Colin hired a truck for the bikes plus us for the last 17 km but first we had to kill a couple hours till road opening. A hike to a cave was in order guided by our local man, Daniel. 

Twelve white folks in biking Lycra in the back of a livestock (?) truck did not go unnoticed by the locals and for the first time since arriving in Sulawesi traffic did not pass. 

Piling out a short time later we headed up a path lined with clove trees, cacao and soursop. Cloves are in season now and have been lining the roads on tarps drying in the sun. There's a lovely Christmas smell in the air in the villages for me as it's always something I associate with Xmas baking and roasted ham. I believe that Daniel said they can make 15,000 rupiah per kg and that an average tree produces 30 to 40 kg per year. An extra $60/year can make a big difference to a family here.

The domesticated trees stopped and the jungle started. Across a bridge and up some concrete steps was a cave similar to those in Toraja, less extensive but containing bones and remnants of coffins of an animistic people who predated the Dutch Christians.

The magic road opening hour was upon us - retrieved the bikes, hopped in the truck and 17 bumpy km's later we were at the lake side cottages at the west side of Lake Poso. Short ride but long day.

Good times!

Distance: 58.88 km

Time: 3:28

Average speed: 16.91 km/hr

Maximum speed: 49.77

Elevation: 318 +/- meters