Cycle Day 7 : Poso to Padapu

Just sitting here watching some kids play football. The goalie, Ronaldo, is using flip flops for goalie gloves. We are at Sahabat (friend) guesthouse tonight. Across the road is the ocean. There is a lovely breeze accompanied by the non stop banter of a trip mate that I've come to refer to as "Malibu Ken" because he is the mold that Malibu Ken was cast from. He has done every thing and been everywhere. He's also the guy who went flying off his bike at 30 km hour when he encountered a bus in the wrong lane at a blind corner. He is stoically continuing to ride, nursing his injured shoulder and scraped arm.

Today tragedy struck him, not once but twice, as both Louise and I passed him. He took umbrage and overtook us, visibly in pain. Tomorrow it's my goal to pass him again...and again. I actually don't mind him. He's very much like an action figure as animated by Pixar in the Toy Story series. Such fun!

It was another 100 km day, actually it was only 99.70 but I overshot the guest house till my gps turned over. Lovely ride. Mostly flat, or rather, undulating and mostly beside the ocean with a warm breeze - palms every where. My pace has improved considerably!

Since the road was mostly flat there were many villages along the way. Folks were out in their Sunday best - churches still out number mosques in this part of Indonesia. Music, sometimes revival, sometimes gospel faded in and out as we made our way along.

Had a stop at a local market that was chok-a-block full of Disney's Frozen branded kids wear and the ubiquitous hello kitty gear. As we progressed along the road I spent a good deal of time dodging goats, kids, kids, cows and chickens. It was great fun today to high five a line of kids and call out the numbers, satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enum...making a mistake prompts a quick correction and extreme laughter.

We are over 1/2 way now and I've cycled close to 500 km. Oddly my legs and knees aren't achey - I'm sure the hot weather helps. Apart from some butt ache my biggest discomfort is my that my right foot keeps falling asleep. My scraped knee is almost normal now - Bag Balm is the reason. Developed for treating cow teats, it's magic for humans. I've been using it for chafing but it's a wonder at healing cuts too - petroleum based with lanolin plus an antiseptic and a cute cow on the tin to boot.

The yoga on this trip hasn't panned out which is too bad as leader Colin has done the teacher training for Iyengar yoga, the style I have taken to thanks to Sherree. He just doesn't have the energy after cycling all day. Colin surprised us on our first morning by telling us he was legally blind - he only has 10% of his vision left. He still can see enough to cycle although at a slower speed. I can overtake him on the flats but not on the uphill. Tenacious guy.

Lunch today was superb. Steamed rice, grilled fish (tasted like Walleye,) grilled squid and some nicely spiced dark green veg of some sort.

Should be something equally yummy for dinner shortly :-)

Looks like my go pro has died so I'll leave you with this shot of a plate of sago, laced with cane sugar and coated with fresh coconut.