My Biker Chick had a three-day work event at Avani Sepang Goldcoast Resort. I tagged along with my bicycle.
I mapped a ride for each of those three days. The first was from the resort to the Sungai Pelek ferry crossing and on to Kuala Lukut.
When I mapped this ride I didn’t know that 1.5 km into my ride the road turns into a fairly narrow gravel path. The gravel path runs counterclockwise for 7 km. Nor did I realise that the path paralleled a canal.
I was on my bike at 5:40 am under a full moon.
The path looks innocuous in daylight. I took this photograph the next day.
Not so at night. Despite the full moon, it was pitch-black. The only light on the path was from my Garmin Varia UT800 front light. The UT800 was bright enough to illuminate the path ahead, but nothing was visible outside the light beam.
I was focused on avoiding the stones on the path when what looked like a rock rose into the air. That gave me a shock. More rocks took flight as I progressed along the trail. Birds were sleeping on the open ground. My post-ride research into the birds of the area identified the birds as being Blue-Breasted Quail.
Just as I got used to birds flying up ahead, a dark shape shot out of the undergrowth in front of me. Before I knew it I was over the handlebar and on the ground. Whatever I hit disappeared without a sound.
Subsequent conversations with a few resort staff identified the animal as a wild boar. Hunting kept the wild boar population in check in the past. Today there is much less hunting and the wild boar population has increased.
I think the boar was drinking from the canal beside the path when I came along and disturbed it.
Photograph of wild boar courtesy of stock.adobe.com
I was on the ground just 3 km into my ride. The heels of both palms were scraped and bruised. The little finger of my right hand throbbed. Both of my wrists were sore. Other bumps and bruises would reveal themselves later. I am still sore and aching after three days.
I brushed the sand off my hands and knees. My right shifter had been pushed inward and clogged with sand when my bike hit the ground. I straightened the shifter and cleared out the sand. I was in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing else to do but pedal on.
1,200 metres later I reached down for my bidon. It wasn’t there. It must have fallen out of the bottle cage when my bicycle somersaulted.
I backtracked, hoping to find the bidon where I had hit the wild boar. I wasn’t sure where I had fallen so I rode until I was sure I had passed the crash site. I didn’t find my bidon. It must have landed in the undergrowth beside the trail.
At kilometre 8.5 I got back onto the asphalt. My hands and wrists hurt, but not enough to dissuade me from continuing on my planned route. I came across a row of shops at kilometre 22. A 7-Eleven was open. I bought drinks, and plasters to dress the scrape on my left palm.
That is when my Biker Chick sent me a WhatsApp message asking “Did you forget your water bottle?”, accompanied by this photograph.
I was embarrassed at forgetting it, but happy that I still had a bidon. Onward to the Sungai Pelek ferry.
If only I could get to it. I rode through the housing area in Sungai Pelek toward the path that leads to the ferry as I had done many times before. Except this time access to that path was blocked by a construction site.
No signs were pointing toward a new route. I spent fifteen aimless minutes looking for the way to the ferry. Then a lady watering the plants at her front gate gave me the directions I needed.
Map courtesy of ridewithgps.com
More gravel on the way to the ferry, but this time no startled quail and charging wild boar.
The sun was rising, and the rest of my ride was trouble-free.
I am used to seeing monkeys during my rides.
Now I have something new to watch out for.
Old Roots, New Routes 