Day 68 – Belum Rainforest to Bukit Keluang

My legs didn’t exactly get a warm up this morning. Pretty much straight away I was headed up a rather lengthy hill.

It wasn’t what I’d call easy going but it was good. Riding up through a rainforest with monkeys running across the road in front of you isn’t something that happens very often. At least it’s not something I’ve ever done before (except for maybe yesterday).

Once higher up, every now and then, a brief break in the trees would offer a glimpse of a scene right out of the Discovery Channel. Some of which offered great photo opportunities for a decent photographer.
Unfortunately, I’m not a decent photographer and I quickly discovered that trying to use a touchscreen phone as a camera with hands dripping in sweat is near impossible… So I gave up. It also wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t stop riding in order to attempt said task, but oh well.

The top came after almost 30 kilometres and I was rewarded with a spectacular view. I also happened to glance down at my brake pads – completely by chance – only to find that one side was almost totally worn down. So after a quick bit of maintenance, that will hopefully last until Singapore, I was on my way. I’m very glad I noticed it before the descent, things could have got a bit messy otherwise.

After the up and down was out of the way, the day became a bit uneventful. I had a prevailing headwind for most of it and got rained on, but other than that it wasn’t too bad.

Another long day in the bank and I’m looking forward to seeing the East coast of Malaysia. Although to be perfectly honest, leaving the Northern hemisphere is now very much on my mind. Praying for a disaster-free run into Singapore.

Distance: 116.43miles / 187.9km
Riding Time: 8:33:55
Av. Speed: 13.6mph / 21.9kph