Today I decided I would like to do the dirt track / jungle bike route through the area. There is a map on the wall of the restaurant which it is suggested that you take a photograph of so you don't get lost, but it really is sketchy and definitely not to scale! More of a cartoon map! Anyhow, the bikes had been returned in the afternoon which meant the weather was a lot cooler so I thought it would be a good time to go since it's only meant to take about 2 1/2 hours to complete.

The beginning was alright but I got lost pretty quickly and ended up down at some beach as I had turned right remembering Howard saying something about concrete in a village. The beach was lovely and I noticed how it was the other side of the rocks that we could see from the restaurant but it wasn't the route I was supposed to take lol. getting back on track I came to the hills which are mentioned on the map. My god...hills....they seemed like mountains! I was hanging less than 1/3 of the way up the first hill! Coming down the other side was a real test of mountain bike ability though. You'd think it would be straight forward but the road is not smooth it is all gravel and some of it not small. I let it fly and zoomed over the gravel straight down the hill and up the other side. Thank heavens for decent suspension and brakes (thank you Matt for fixing all the bikes the day before lol). I saw some interesting animals on my journey too which scampered across the road as I went sailing by.

I made it to the dodgiest bridge which seemed to bounce up and down every time you stepped on it so rightly chose not to try and cycle across it! It was actually at this point that I got seriously lost. I just couldn't find the left turning which would take you down another track so I kept going on the sealed road. I went so far that I came off of the hand drawn map that I had photographed from the restaurant earlier that afternoon. I stopped to ask for some directions and of course no one spoke English but somehow I made myself understood. I took a left and went down a road which was labelled as Rollercoaster Ride...now I know why. DO NOT go down this road on a bike, not unless you are used to the opening hill stages of the Tour De France! It literally was shaped like a rollercoaster, I almost passed out getting to the top of the first hill. The other side was a lot more fun I will admit!

I was also in a little bit of a hurry to get back as I had noticed from the summit of mount rollercoaster (*laugh*) that tonight was going to be the best sunset since I'd been here and I wasn't about to miss that! All in all when I got back (in time for sunset) it had taken me about 4 hours to do the route due to my massive de-tour. Matt just laughed and asked how the hell I managed to get that far off course and I just smiled and said I must be unable to read a map lol.

Tonight has been a good last night at Tampat Do Aman, tomorrow I head back to KK and fly to KL the following day. Mainly transit days so there shouldn't be any blog entries till I get to Singapore!

The picture is of the sunset that I made it back in time to see from the beach.