May 14, 2015
Tyre trouble for Tom: Don't forget, he's very resourceful
We planned to leave our little piece of paradise on the 13th, which would give us an extra day to get to Medan, but when it came to leaving Tom and I looked at each other and said “Nah” and so we stayed another day. It was lucky that we did, because on the afternoon of the 13th I got really quite sick and wouldn’t have been much good at cycling. Come the next morning and I was still feeling a bit crook, but not as bad, and we really did have to get going. There was a scheduled ferry leaving Tuk-Tuk for the mainland at 9.30 a.m. but getting Tom ready for it proved difficult and it was a rush to get down to the port on time. We did make it though, and as we sailed away I saw that on the back of the boat there was an Indonesian flag blowing in the wind and an opportunity for me to get my country-photo in, although the photo does rather give away Tom’s lack of organisational skills:
We reached the town of Parapat on the mainland and were suddenly back to the chaos of Indonesia. I was keen to push on as fast as we could in order to get to Berastagi early the next day, where I wanted to climb a volcano. Unfortunately our onward travel was delayed again as Tom first wanted to look for a new tyre. It seemed eight days in Tuk-Tuk hadn’t been enough for him to make enquiries at any of the numerous bike-rental places and he was still using the busted old one. But a man at the harbour showed us to a shop that had a few tyres, only problem was they were size 24” and would never fit over Tom’s 28” rims.
Tom borrowed the shop’s bike pump in order to put some more air in the tube. A moment later I heard the sound of air escaping very quickly and saw Tom holding up a piece of the valve which he had somehow managed to break. Now he was really screwed as of course he still had no spare tube and this one was obviously done for. He started talking about having to hitch-hike now, which would at least let me get on and start cycling and give me the chance to get to Berastagi in time to climb the volcano without having to keep waiting for him. But then by some miracle the shop turned up with a 28” tube. With the tube replaced a man then provided Tom with a long strip of plastic that he wrapped around the problem part of the tyre in order to hold it together. He was suddenly back in business.
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The road was very busy and dangerous for a few kilometres as we climbed up and up through rainforest and past monkeys, until we reached a turn-off that would take us away from all the vehicles. That was a much, much better road, climbing up and down along the lake with some great views down over the water. The scale of things was such that even after forty kilometres I looked down at the lake and could still see Tuk-Tuk, but eventually we put enough distance behind us and left the lake for good. Then we were back on the flat, which meant easier cycling, but more people and fewer camping options. Once again we found ourselves setting up our tents in a field in the dark, hoping that none of the farm workers that saw us on their way home would mistake us for terrorists.
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 40,673 km (25,258 miles)
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