Sunday Morning Rides - Fifth Edition

Kampung Danu – Thu 20th March 2008

Today is not Sunday but a public holiday and most people, let’s be frank, couldn’t give a flying one what the public holiday is for but another day without the distress of work. For us, one week of planning materialized today as we embarked on an excursion to Borneo Highlands on our push bikes. Our destination is a small Bidayuh village named, kampung Danu along the foothills of Borneo Highlands. Suggested by our newest member to our cycling team, Nichelas to the effect, “It is an easy 8km ride from my wife’s kampung. It has got a wooden hanging bridge spanning across the beautiful Sarawak River. When it is not raining and the river level is low, we can also walk across the river without using the bridge. We will drive down to my wife’s kampung and start our ride from there. It will probably not be challenging enough for you guys”. Try and suggest another route and you can expect to be called a faggot or words to that effect. So we all agreed.

Turns out this route was a difficult one. Not for the uninitiated and Leslie, you can count your lucky stars for not following. We were completely fooled by Nichelas. I ended up clocking 36km on my odometer for the 2hr ride and we all suffered from a condition which we called SHP or Severe Hill Phobia. Normally I enjoyed the distress of people unable to climb hills on their push bikes, but this was hill after hill after hill… what Yip and I completely miss in our overly zealous aspiration… trust the novice to plan your course! As Yip would put it... Sux!

# In our cars driving towards Nichelas’s wife kampung, somewhere past the Semonggok Orang-utan wildlife centre

# On the road with our push bikes feeling the freedom of the great outdoors...

# ....until we encounter the first steep hill. Yip with chain/gear issues after the climb

# This is Nichelas; Never trust a sneering guy

# Riding into the clouds

# Unsealed road on the home stretch to kampung Danu

# Nic & I at our final destination

# Yip doing his porn thing by the hanging bridge

# Scene of the Sarawak River at kampung Danu taken from the hanging bridge