Thanks to Geetha, we all had Malaysian flags on our bikes when we got off the train at Pulau Sebang station in Tampin.
Everyone was hungry. This gentleman at Restoran Nasi Kandar Impian made our roti canai, naan and tosai. Do you think we could be related?
I plotted a scenic route rather than a direct route from Tampin to Port Dickson. To give us a longer ride and to keep us off trunk roads.
5km from Tampin, at the Freeport A’Famosa Outlet, is this unusual sight. A Boeing 747 has been converted into a retail concept store and café by Coach, the American luxury fashion house.
The back roads were lovely to ride on.
We arrived at the beach after two hours of cycling. We needed a rest and to refill bidons. It is just over 40km / 25mi from Tampin to Pantai Tanjung Bidara. Almost all of that distance is over rolling terrain. We had 385 metres / 1,260 feet of climbing in our legs.
The first place we stopped at didn’t have any bottled or canned drinks. D Pantai Penyu is a kilometre down the road from that dry place. I think we wiped out their stock of bottled water.
The next 12 kilometres / 7.5 miles were along the beach. The views were nice. Unfortunately, the sun was upon us. It was 33ºC / 91.5ºF. The high humidity meant that the “Feels Like” temperature was considerably higher.
We did stop again less than a kilometre from D Pantai Penyu. Most of us downed brain freezingly cold coconut shakes at D’Ribut Pengkalan Balak.
Then it was back out into the 2:30pm heat.
We split into two groups upon leaving Tampin because the six who opted for lunch at Old Town White Coffee were still eating when the rest were ready to roll. Having come together just before the beach, we were soon in three groups. I was in the middle one and secretly relieved to hear that Marvin in the group behind us had a flat tire.
We four rested in the shade while waiting for Marvin’s group to catch up to us. After 50 minutes, we heard from Marvin that he couldn’t fix his flat, that he had been sipping a coffee in a café for the past 30 minutes, and that the others were on the road.
In 150 metres from our spot in the shade, we were on Federal Route 138. This trunk road links Sungai Udang and Linggi. I had plotted some diversions to get us off Federal Route 138 and later off Federal Route 5 as we got closer to Port Dickson. It was hot, and we were tired, so we decided to skip the diversions and stay on the Federal Routes.
30 minutes and 14km later, we pulled into the 5 Petrol station in Pasir Panjang. We needed cold drinks.
The fast group were in a restaurant ahead of us. They had 14km left to ride. We thought a group was still behind us, so we waited at the petrol station for 15 minutes. With no sign of any other R@SKLs, we pushed on.
It turned out that we were the last group on the road. The others must have ridden past on the trunk road while we were waiting in the shade by the beach. Everyone arrived safely. Most with some degree of sunburn 🌞🌞🌞.
Zulfa had arrived earlier with our bags. The guys in the same apartment as her and I had it good. The A/C was on, and cold drinks were in the fridge when we arrived.
There was time for a nap before dinner at Yun Long Seafood Restaurant.
We left it to food connoisseur TH to order. Every dish was delicious.
I can’t speak for the others, but I was asleep by 9:30pm.
Old Roots, New Routes 