The Journeys ... The Current Trip

First of all, I would like to send a happy birthday to my dear sister Andrea! Hope you have a good day today.

So, we have started cycling in Sulawesi after all. However, we didn't finish the first section, South Sulawesi, as quickly as anticipated. For once, it wasn't us being lazy - I ate something bad and needed some recovery time.

Riding in South Sulawesi is generally pretty easy. It's pretty flat out here - especially, if you come from riding on Flores! The first day, we rode 103 kilometers to a town called Jeneponto. The first 60-70 kilometers were smooth sailing, although the traffic while trying to escape Makassar was pretty crazy and loud. After that, we hit a strong head wind, but not even that could stop us from completing the longest distance to date.
The real hiccup that day happened after riding. We went for dinner and I eventually got to try a dish called Gado-Gado. It's vegetables cooked in a peanut sauce. We ordered it with rice and a boiled egg for proteins. We eat eggs on a very regular basis to keep/get our muscles strong. If you do that, you are bound to have problems once in a while. I'm certain it was not a bug such as salmonella, but there was definitely something wrong with the egg. I spend the next 24 hours in bed with bad tummy aches and a slight fever. Luckily they had TV in the Wisma (Guesthouse) we stayed at, so at least I didn't go insane.

After this unexpected stop, we headed to the actual 'rest days' destination of Bira. Again, we set a new distance record for this tour: 112 kilometers! The first 90 were pretty easy, even though we had a slight head wind for most of the way. Then the road turned into a cyclist nightmare. It wasn't the millions of potholes that were the biggest problem, but the washboard-like surface of what remained of the road. The front shocks eat up those bumps, but the back wheel takes the full grunt, slamming the saddle into your butt every two or three seconds. After already having spent 90 kilometers in the saddle, this quite literally is a 'pain in the a@#'.

Bira itself was nice though. It's South Sulawesi's number one beach town, thanks to its white sand beach and turquoise waters. However, we only saw six bules (foreigners) during the whole three days - the other visitors are day tripping Indonesians from Makassar. Which meant, it was sort of difficult for me to take a swim in peace because people quite literally would walk into the water, come up to me and ask to have a picture taken with me. For a couple of days, I felt what it would be like to be a celebrity. It sucks. Can't walk 50 meters without people approaching you? Nah, there's not enough money to make up for all the invasion of privacy.
Still, it was nice and relaxing in Bira and even Erika! managed to go for a swim - people-phobia and all. (She doesn't swim in waters that contain too many other human beings.)

Now we are in a town called Bulukumba and over the next two days we want to make it to Watampone, our jumping-off point to South East Sulawesi. (Sulawesi is split into four districts: South, South East, Central and North).

So, probably more from there. .
Adrian