I suspect what will be remembered most about today’s ride to Pulau Carey is how hot it was while we were riding back to Kota Kemuning. It got up to 37° C / 99° F. Combine the temperature with the humidity of almost 70%, and the temperature felt like 45° C / 113° F. Even a rare tailwind – hooray – between Jenjarom and Bandar Rimbayu did nothing to cool us down.
We shouldn’t have been surprised that it got so hot. It felt warmer and more humid than usual at 6.15am when the first R@SKLs arrived at Restoran BR Maju. Warning sign #1.
Photograph courtesy of Alfred Chan
30 of us were ready to roll at 7.00am. Under a cloudless sky. Warning sign #2.
Photograph courtesy of Lee Heng Keng
Twenty minutes later we were riding through Bandar Rimbayu, with the sun already making its presence felt as it rose above the horizon. Warning sign #3.
Photograph courtesy of Mark Lim
We were in Jenjarom at 8.00am. The temperature was 28° C / 82° F. About half of the group could only do a short ride and were turning back at Jenjarom. We all flooded into a coffee shop for breakfast before the group split up.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Photograph courtesy of Jiv Sammanthan
40 minutes later 17 of us continued on to Pantai Tanjung Rhu, Pulau Carey. We were very happy to see that sections of Jalan Klang Banting had recently been resurfaced. Including the section between the Lebuhraya Lembah Klang Selatan flyover and Jalan Bandar Lama, which had been exceptionally badly rutted and potholed.
As you can see from the route map above, Pulau Carey is barely an island. The land mass of Pulau Carey is separated from the peninsula by the Langat River and a narrow meandering finger of the Strait of Malacca.
When we got to the sea at 9.20am, the tide was out.
Photograph courtesy of Luanne Sieh
There was no shade, which was inconvenient as Jiv had a puncture just as we got to the end of the road. There was quite a bad cut in his tire, so the fix was a bit involved and took some time. CK to the rescue!
Photograph courtesy of Jiv Sammanthan
We interrupted the repair for a group photograph. It was too hot to linger, so as soon as Jiv’s tire was fixed we started the return leg to Kota Kemuning.
Photograph courtesy of Lee Heng Keng
By 10.30am we had covered the 16km / 10mi between the beach and our regular cendol stall. Wet, ice cold and sweet. Just what the doctor ordered when it was 32° C / 90° F and felt closer to 37° C / 99° F.
Photograph courtesy of Mark Lim
The temperature kept climbing as we rode the 28km / 17mi from the cendol stop to Restoran BR Maju in Kota Kemuning. We needed a short rest in the shade at Kampung Sri Cheeding after 15km / 9mi.
Lots of sunblock and sunscreen were applied today. Nevertheless, I suspect some of us got burnt over the last 35minutes of the ride today. It was a scorcher! Probably hot enough to do this.
Photograph courtesy of alert-conservation.org
Old Roots, New Routes 