Balik Pulau 25km round trip

May 17th.. A long awaited date for our long distance round trip. Found the trail in Everytrail.com http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=133031 and we loaded into our bicycle GPS. We had it in 3 units.. GPS 60, HT Diamond and another one.. just in case we really got lost in the jungle.

Started off from Taman Mutiara, we took the Botanica.CT road to avoid traffic and head towards Balik Pulau town for brunch and to stock up on energy bars, lunch packs and water...

Cycling up from Balik Pulau town towards Kpg Titi Serong is simple. Mostly tarmac and slight climb. However right after the first Hut built in the middle of the road, the climb became intense. Certain parts are as steep as 30 degrees. So, I ended up pushing my bike in most parts of it. To add on to the pain, it started to rain. We sheltered under a huge Durian tree for 25 minutes and alas, we were drenched, so decided to continue on... the rain stopped right after we had out lunch on the hilltop hut.

From hill top hut, we cycled another few KMs and we lost out way.. found out that we had to make a turn in the a jungle track.. to our surprise, the track is a 1 foot wide cemented path in the jungle ! Some of the cement path were cracked or washed away, but 80% of it is still quite nice.

We also met with a few fallen trees. Had to push the bike over it, under it and sometimes adventurous enough to ride thru it..

We met another gang of riders shortly, and the world is so small, we found Jane Lim's blog with their ride's updates.

Some part of the track, our GPS signal was lost due to thick trees and valleys.. But we were on track as we can follow the trails that the others left behind. Our main problem was always the Y junctions and the cross roads.. We need to ride an additional 50 - 100m to check out the trajectory. (we went off course a total of 3 times.. )

Anyway, right after we reached the cross roads to Tiger Hill, IronX, Dam, Sg Pinang.. The ride became easier.. Weee....

Then we reached this Vegetable Farm.. with Water Crest plants and Mint plants !! The air was filled with smell of fresh mints. We stopped and took some pictures... and me, the crazy one tried an Iron Man pose.. which I regretted later as it ached my already tired muscles on my body...

The ride from there towards the final stretch of cemented road towards Titi Kerawang main road was nice... I was nearly bitten by a dog...

and Ooi drifted and nearly crashed..

We cycled a bit uphill to Titi Kerawang Waterfall after reaching the mainroad. All because our CamelBaks and HydraPacks are all dried up already.. Went there to wash our faces (and hair), bought drinks and we even washed our bikes.. 

After which, we just cruise our way back to Taman Mutiara.. and I got the GPS tracks loaded and plotted this out.. Our first contribution to GPX mapping.. hehehe

- THE END -
Stay tuned for more next week...