Cruisin'
Ride reviews
(continued from pg 11)
Sun, flu and muscle pull...
We did pretty well on the first 10km.
Our team covered quite a distance in the oil palm estate.
From my view, it was miles and miles of barren soil, loose gravel and oil palm trees.
There were no shade from the blazing heat and we had to move as fast as we could to get out of the estate.
What made things even worse was the fact that there were no coffee shops and stalls along the way.
So, to sum it up, we were in the middle of nowhere and the nearest civilization is 22km away.
I was nursing a cold from the days before and the bad air quality that hit the Klang Valley didn't actually help.
While cycling on the loose gravel and sandy soil, I felt the great strain on my body.
It was really difficult to breath with a congested nasal passage and phelgm building up on my chest.
I watched as my Garmin Fenix and EDGE800 GPS began to flash: "heart rate too high!".
We pushed on as far as we could and reached a shaded area where Chris had gestured for a quick lunch.
It was 11:30am in the morning and the Sun was at its full glory.
We had clear blue skies over our heads and the air quality was also good.
The only thing that really bothered me was the blazing heat. After lunch, we decided to push on.
It felt as if we were in an abyss.
There were no end to the length of the gravel path and loose sand made it really hard to pedal our bikes.
On the average, we were doing about 10km/h on the bikes.
About three hours into the ride, the group decided to pull over at a shaded area.
I got off my bike and my left thigh began to experience spasms.
Earlier in the day, I downed two time-release electrolyte capsules.
It didn't help as I struggled to stand up. Michelle saw the colour on my face and told me to take off my backpack.
I removed my helmet and sat on the ground. My immediate reaction was to pull out my muscle relaxant spray.
Raman, who saw me seated on the ground had helped by showing me on how to recover from a muscle pull.
I rested a bit, regained my composure, got onto my bike and pushed on.
We were still far away from our objective.
While we were blazing a path through the estate, it dawned on me that our team were tight in every aspect.
After about four hours on the trail, we reached the border demarkation of Selangor and Perak.
It was two long ditch linked by a wooden plank.
The long stretch
Riding past the oil palm estate's locomotive
Siang had earlier instructed us to carry at least 3-litres of water.
We packed plenty and with the intense heat, most of us were feeling the severe effects of dehydration.
Almost every few kilometres were a brief halt for drinking water.
At about 01:45pm, we reached the wooden plank and crossed over to Teluk Intan.
All of us made it through the obstacles and proceeded to the oil palm estate's administrative centre.
There was a site office and the people there were observing our movement.
We linked up again with Raman who rode ahead because he wanted to escape the heat.
At this point, we were about 5km away from Kampung Banja, a village on the outskirts of Teluk Intan town.
While we were riding, a middle aged man, whom we believed was a supervisor at the estate rode past us on his motorcycle.
"Who is the leader?," he asked.
I responded my acknowledging his question.
"Do you have permission to enter?," he continued.
I told him that we didn't and apologized to him.
The man then turned away.
Later, he came back and asked where we were from and how we found the estate.