Blog / Rest. Repair. Ride.

26 March 2012

Yesterday's short day seems to have led to good recovery. At no point was today's ride challenging, even when it looked like the wheels were going to come off.

The hotel in Jerantut had breakfast included - only toast and coffee, but I'm not turning down 'free' carbs and caffeine first thing in the morning. Roll out is easy, and the kilometres start to fall by.

I could have stayed on road 64 all day, but some careful calculations with Google Maps have shown I can save a handful of kilometres with a few well positioned turns. This involves ignoring a bunch of signs directing me to Maran, which is great, because the bulk of the traffic seems to follow the signs.

When I return to road 64 after my shortcut, I find freshly laid asphalt that's great riding. It's obviously not so great for the massive roadkill lizards - these monsters are over a metre long, and - despite the added tyre marks - ain't so flat.

Maran has no accommodation. Well, there's the golf resort, but that doesn't come cheap. After scooting about trying to find somewhere else, I stop to buy some drinks at 7-11, and ask the checkout girl. She tells me there's only the golf resort, but that it'd be no problem because I was a rich man. I assured her I wasn't, and hit the road.

There's supposedly an army saying that bad stuff happens in the dark, in a thunderstorm, on the corner of four map squares. Map squares are going the way of the dinosaurs, but their replacements have flaws too - my map's coverage of this area is limited. Just north, some dark and moody clouds are brewing, and the wind is getting up, blowing all manner of road debris at me. At least it's not dark.

The rain comes about 10km later, but it's not the smashing downpour I expected. I've a few options for finding accommodation, with the shortest looking like I'll clock 120km or so. Fortunately, the need doesn't arise, a big hotel sign catching my eye in Seri Jaya.

101km, 23.6km/h, 4hr16min, 7944km

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