Distance: 14.65 km
Ridetime: 00:34:00
Average: 25.8 km/h
Total distance: 10516 km
In the morning I cycled the 15 km from Batam town to the ferry terminal and got a ticket for the 9:30 ferry to Kuala Tungkal on Sumatra. The ferry looked quite small considering it was supposed to be an 8 hour crossing. Furthermore it was Friday the 13th. Oh well, my main concern was weather it would be possible to buy food on board, which I was luckily told it was.
As the ferry departed the crew cranked up the volume of the Polynesian sounding music. Indonesia is a country made up of islands after all!
About halfway to Sumatra we were going to cross the equator. With my GPS I was able to track the progress and as we got nearer I went to the top deck to celebrate. Trying to explain: 1) what is the equator, 2) what is a GPS, and 3) why this was important to my fellow passengers proved to be almost impossible. Anyway, it was indeed a special moment for me when the N changed to S on my GPS. I’m now a long way from home.
In Tungkal I wondered if I would be able to find a hotel or if I somehow had to continue to Jambi, the next big city. There turned out to be two hotels in town. One was full but the other had a room available.
I’m now ready to face the much dreaded Sumatra roads tomorrow. Let the Indonesian adventure begin!
Cool!
[…] one and only goal for today was to reach equator! It was back in 2011 that I last crossed the equator on a boat between two Indonesian islands – almost can’t believe I have spent 3 years in the southern hemisphere. Now I was about […]