Thursday 9 June 2016

Bali biking Day 5

This was always going to be the biggest and best day of the tour and any serious tour of Bali on a bicycle must include a summit ride of Kintimani.
Google maps told me I had 1700m to climb - and Strava confirmed the peak was an impressive 1670m. The ascent of 35km starts from the turn off about 30km past Sinngaraja. The road is excellent quality and traffic was non existent. This was a just a perfectly peaceful day of man verse mountain.
I knew I needed to complete the climb to the summit and start the descent to Ubud by 4pm.. Made it by 3:30 and arrived in Ubud about 5pm. The descent was down one of the roads commonly used by the bike tour companies who will drive day trippers to the lookout at Kintimani and coast back down to Ubud. (I previously did one of those day tours with GoBali bike tours last year. The $45 package was ok value which included a coffee stop on the way up, a very average rental bike and a good lunch).
I arrived in the beautiful foothills town of Ubud and enjoyed 2 separate dinners to replenish.

somewhere along the long climb to the top of Kintimani

The profile!

Hotel staff morning prayer in the front court yard in Ubud

The entire travel kit. Bike box, panier, cycling clets and runners, and spares. I lunpacked it all in the foyer of the airport and left the bike box in storage for 5000RP/day. ($3)