Cape York & into Asia via Timor-Leste, Indonesia, etc

OK, I'm finally ready to post the full "I'm really stupid sometimes" photos. Here's the story in pictures. Back down there at Way Kambas National Park, I'd checked in to the lodge just near the gates to the National Park, unloaded and went for a ride to see if I could spot any wild elephants. I came to a tourist area and there were some local tourists taking a ride on a tame bull elephant, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

A bit further along, I came on this young one



Cute eh?

Then this one with its 6 week old baby. I found out later that the baby had pushed a lady over that day. Strong little buggers



This elephant camp was just down the road from there.



Mostly bulls, possibly all bulls even, as female Asian elephants don't have tusks that are visible unless the mouth is open and some males also don't have them... all chained - separated from each other. Female Asian elephants don't have much in the way of tusks. The Asian elephant is recognised as endangered, with around 40-50,000 in 2003. According to wiki the heaviest Asian bull elephant recorded was shot by the Maharajah of Susang in India in 1924, and was 8 tonnes, 3.35 m (11.0 ft) tall and 8.06 m (26.4 ft) long.

I pulled up just before there and there was a local bloke sitting near the entrance to that paddock. I indicated to him that I wanted to ride through and "asked" him if it was OK... in other words, I pointed at the bike, the elephant camp and did the old thumb up / thumb down signal, with a shrug. He nodded, so I thanked him and rode in.

Big mistake. I'd seen a movie while I was home over Christmas... some bloke from the US who was thinking of moving his family to Thailand. He'd come across a chained elephant in the movie and had let it smell his hand... so, I rode up to one of the small elephants, stopped and held out my hand. No worries.



Small bull. Very small. Quite nice, friendly, had a good sniff of me and the bike and that was it.

Same again at the next young bull



OK, I'm not totally stupid. I stayed away from the big buggers



Here's where things went astray. I stopped to say G'day to this bloke. I found out later, from the American elephant expert staying at the lodge, that he's a 4 year old "boisterous adolescant... almost 2 tons". This was the start of the "OH SHIT" moment....



That's the shot I posted a while back. I'll post a sequence of what happened next, which shows how far he threw the bike and me. After he gave me the wild-eyed look there, he put his head down, his right tusk went onto my left thigh.... at which stage I dragged my leg forward, to get it out from under his tusk - a move which bloody well hurt, but saved my life according to the elephant expert. The bruising from that lasted for weeks. Brutus there then flicked us... threw the bike. He doesn't look very big in this shot.... because after I hit the ground, I bolted. Take a look at how far he threw us... damn near 10' at a guess.



He wandered over for a look then.



I was getting worried when he started sniffing around the bike. My worry was that if he burnt his trunk on the exhaust, he'd stomp the bike



Luckily he didn't. He did claim it though. He wasn't going anywhere. This is the other shot I posted before.... where he was prodding the bike with his foot. He moved it around a little bit, but not much fortunately.



Eventually a couple of Mahouts came out... One distracted him and got him to go his way and the other guy and myself grabbed the bike and got it out of Brutus' reach. I'd lost a bit of fuel out the breather, but that was it, bar a groove in the nicely named Safari tank. I posted that shot before, but for the sake of completeness in this "I'm an idiot" post... here it is again.



So.... am I going to go pat the pretty little elephants again? Fat frigging chance - but while on the subject of bitey / hurty things.... when I did the river tour and we did some night bird spotting on the way back, I'd seen a pair of bright yellow eyes in the jungle as we drove down the road. "Deer or cat" said the driver, who hadn't seen them - he was looking out his side and they were on my side.

I watched a damn Tiger documentary last night... set in India, not Sumatra, but nevertheless, it had plenty of deer and tigers in it. Tigers have yellow eyes, deer don't. Do deer eyes glow yellow when a light gets shone on them? Anyone know? I'm not sure I want to know, because I reckon I already know after that doco. We were out of the car, 150 metres down the road and into the jungle, chasing night birds, just a kilometre down the road.... and I wasn't feeling too comfortable about it. To the extent I fired off the flash a few times on the way back to the car.

I'm still shaking my head at that one.

Now, on a better topic... someone asked me to post photos of the local ladies. Here's the girl at the KFC just near the guesthouse (hey... we were only there for the wifi)



No... my gut isn't that big... honest... its just a big shirt.

I don't know if I posted a decent shot of how things ended up with the rack. I know I mentioned I'd lost all the bolts that hold it on.... so, I've thrown a stick under it, which keeps it from moving around and having one side drop down over the hot exhaust gases. I had to do that because one of the heat shields is cracked.... probably because it was way overloaded with one of the pillions I've had putting all her weight on the rack rather than getting too close to me. I can understand that, I guess.



It wasn't quite as simple as just throwing new bolts in, because I'd never got the rack finished before I left... it would have taken a couple more days of moulding work to get the under-seat fit right, so I used some metal clamps instead.... and they disappeared with the bolts. I'm really pleased with how it works though - even with no bolts, it takes all the weight on the front section of the subframe.

I fitted some nice LED indicators to the top section of the numberplate, but I over-tightened and cracked one... and its now fallen off, so I'm about to buy the 4th set of rear indicators for this trip. Call it R&D eh? I really wish I had a second bike or a spare subframe while I've been home... I could have done version 2 and got a few of these things sorted.

Oops... gotta go - son's playing soccer. I've got some more shots to post later... Medan, just before the 'quake.

I wouldn't beat yourself up too badly about the elephant. I imagine that given lax supervision a lot of tourists to our shores would be gutted by those 'cute' kangaroos and ripped to shreds by the 'cuddly' koala "bears".... Also, why are the poor creatures chained? No wonder they're angry.

I'd be a bit pissed at the local for 'letting' you go in without warning you. At least you got out of it with a few well earned battle scars on the KTM and not so pleasant ones on yourself. Could have been a lot worse.

Cheers for the last post. There have been a couple of shots of the local ladies (the two with minerals pasted on their faces spring to mind, often) that have shown just how lovely the other scenery can be .

I look forward to the next instalment!

Yep... I'm pretty much over the tosser elephant... except I'm hearing on the news tonight about a Kiwi zookeeper just killed by an elephant. I'm not going near any frigging elephants. That American lady kept telling me I'm the luckiest man on the planet. No... I wasn't that lucky.... I'm a married man!

It isn't just the local ladies who are lovely btw. Hannah and Willemijn are the two lovely future Dutch lawyers (sheesh, nearly mispelt that as "layers" and my wife would not have been amused!) that I spent some time exploring Medan with



That's us at the Sultan's palace... not that you can see it. We'd decided to go somewhere else for dinner and had gone to something that Lonely Planet described thus:

"Inspired by Singapore's alfresco dining, this collection of outdoor cafés occupies Lapangan Merdeka and is anchored by one of the shiniest McDonald's you'll see outside the Soviet bloc"

It was a bit ughh as it turned out... very plastic. We had a snack and decided to find somewhere else. Our transport decided we wanted to go to the Mosque... which was fine by us, but not what we had in mind. The Sultan's palace is just near there.



Anyone who watched coverage of the recent earthquakes in Sumatra would have seen this mosque. People flocked to it because its been there since 1906 - and obviously survived the big one in 2004.



We got there just before evening prayers... too late to do a tour. Eddy (not sure he would spell it that way, but that's what he said his name was) grabbed us and showed us around.... with the tape blasting the call to prayer in our ears

Eddy certainly took a shine to Willemijn...





We ended up having dinner with Eddy and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, that dinner included fried pippies, boiled turtledove eggs, capcay, tempe, etc, etc. Washed down with avocado juice lashed with chocolate.



Here's the kids that showed up as we'd pretty much stuffed ourselves.... they asked for some money.... something that happened pretty much only in the northern parts of Indonesia... and as I normally do when someone asks for money, I said I'd feed them instead....



They got our leftovers and a Nasi Goreng each as well. I don't think they really needed it... they were just a trio of little shits trying it on, but such is life



Stanley, at the guest house, at one stage was suggesting I leave my bike in the living room...



.... but after about three days there, I convinced him it'd be better in his garage for the next month. He's a very bike-friendly guy and he is willing to help bike riders sort out any problems. I wasn't over-impressed with the location of his guesthouse, but having someone with his attitude steamrollers over the top of a better location any day. Here's Stanley with Willemijn the day she headed north, into Islamic territory again to see the orangutans.



Stanley's mum owns the guesthouse. She's in this shot



The old guy is a former ADVer.

He told us (a few times) about when he rode his BSA from Jakarta to Bandung in 1948 and didn't see a single car. He's 88 and was born in the Netherlands. He did slave labour during WW2 and then was excused from military service in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) as a result of that experience.... and he met Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia through his football (soccer). He says his life was spared during the independence struggle because he knew Sukarno, and he was able to save his neighbours lives as well. He ended up moving to the USA, but says he has built three houses in Indonesia. I take that as a euphemism. He's built a house for a (different) woman three times over the years is my guess. He had a local woman there with him but we didn't see much of her. She seemed happy with the arrangement. She's got it easy compared to many.

Last, but not least... this was the sign that greeted me at the airport. Its a sign in several languages warning of the dangers of trying to get to Australia by boat. Way down the other end of Indonesia, we'd been checked out as potential snakeheads (people smugglers).



Its a big issue and a serious one. Hundreds have died trying to get to Australia this way. Very, very sad.

So.... I'm now in prep mode again.... starting to think about what I need to take back with me.

I'm going to throw a new chain on the bike - the one on it is rattling a bit after a very, very hard 10,000 miles or so... mostly un-lubed. I didn't get a chance to check it before I came home, but for a couple of hundred bucks..... its time. I think I'll try and find somewhere I can get the front tyre done in Thailand, but I'll throw a new rear tyre on... although there's probably 1,000km before I hit the tread wear indicator. Its all about not leaving it until its all totally stuffed.... I'd rather do it now than sweat it later trying to find one.

New socks! I've gotta get new socks.... I had toes and heels hanging out of threads by the time I finished the last bit. Oh yeah... here's a big tip, so to speak.... new undies. I got caught out, literally, in Vietnam a couple of years ago. I bought some Calvin Klein (well, it said CK on the label) undies and had to spend a day with it all hanging out before I threw them away. So... socks and undies.

New SD cards too.... gotta clean up the hard disk as well... and an oil filter, some brake pads (I've got 2 sets of fronts there, but my rears are gone and I want a spare set with me)... and a few things like that. I suppose I should check where the next malaria zone is too eh?

Anything else?

Yeah, don't forget to stop and smell the roses again. (Who'd a thought they'd let me on this forum eh Ian? I'd better get myself a bike now if they're gonna let me stay......)

Hey Ian, I'm still wondering how you're planning on getting across the Straight of Malacca. Got anything organised yet? Thing is, according to reports over on the HUBB, this crossing ain't as straightforward as it used to be, even up to as recently as last month (March).

BTW, we'll be following in your tracks, starting in 18 days' time (Mon-14-May), when we're back in Bali.


She'll be right mate ..

KEITH [& ELLEN]


.

Hey BigFella, lovely photos. Really enjoying the report.

See that you're in Medan. Mention of boat to Malaysia. I used an agent called Mr Lim, who operates on the Malaysian side. I can try dig out more details if need be.

See you mate.
Nate.

G'day folks.

K & E... don't miss Bromo.... and watch out for the elephants in Sumatra.

Nate.... yeah, I've heard of Mr Lim. Stanley at JJ's Guesthouse in Medan seems to know the process and he really likes bikes, so I'll shoot him an email and see if he can cover the Indonesian end. I'm not going to rush things... and I may be going back down to Lake Toba to visit some folks I met there.

G'day Greg. Jeez, I suppose I could spare another old postie. Haven't got any runners though.

Nate - there's mixed reports about Mr Lim's service. More than a few say he's stopped dealing with this shipping route; one or two others reckon he's still operating, especially the Indo to ~~> Malay direction.

See these HUBB threads:

Need a shipping from Malaysia to Indonesia

Bike from Malaysia to Indonesia? .. From post #60


C-O-N-FU-S-E-D ..

-----------------

EDIT - well, I'll just wait and see how you get across Bigfella.

Yeah, Bromo is on the list. And I'll watch out for them heffalumps! .. :eek1


.

great report. keep this stream of photos going. as we chinese would say, jiayou!

Interesting indeed.

I would say, whether Mr Lim is in business or not, there'll be someone who'll be able to get the bike across. Money talks after all.

Just be wary. Desperate to get across before my visa expired, I was introduced to a man - a big man - as big as you BigFella - who said he could get the bike across to Malaysia. I paid him the 1 million ruppiah (about $120) he asked for. Three days later I got the passenger ferry to Malaysia by which time the bike was already there. That's when I met Mr Lim, the agent on that side of the pond, who also wanted 1 million ruppiah. And I didn't have much choice but to pay him. So no doubt it'll be an interesting crossing, however which way you do it.

But it's all good fun.

Best of luck with it, and enjoy the time off in Oz.

Nate

My wife's been giving me a hard time about putting a map up on where I've been. I rang her a couple of times while I was in Indonesia and got a "what country are you in?" comment or two... so, without further adieu... here's a couple of maps.

First up, all my Australian trips on the KTM.... which are all the solid green lines.



The solid purple line was the Scrapheap Adventure Ride to Cameron Corner at Easter 2011 - which was on two other bikes, not the Super Enduro. First up was my Honda 250, seen here with my son attending to his MZ250.



I blew the Honda up about 30 minutes later... trying to keep up with my L Plater son. I finished that ride on a backup bike kindly supplied by Adventuremoto.

Steve's $242 Scrapheap Kwacka that he loaned me had an issue or two of its own. I had a blowout at 110 kph, trying to catch a certain L Plater.... who'd been overtaking R1200 GSA riders



.... and the dotted purple line was the bit of road the SE did on the bike trailer, heading towards Cairns.

Some of the Super Enduro's trips that aren't detailed in this RR include last year's Alpine Rally which is a winter trip to the Snowy Mountains,





.... a trip up the Great Dividing Range to the ADV get-together at Upper Horton,



.... and the delivery trip I did back from Brisbane to Sydney via the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park



The Timor-Leste and Indonesian route is detailed here



In-country time was about 4 weeks in Timor-Leste and 10 weeks in Indonesia - so far.

Dotted purple is shipping (Darwin - Dili), about 9 ferry trips, ranging from 45 minutes to 15 hours and a couple of days on "our" boat out to see the Komodo Dragons and dive with the Manta Rays.

The dotted blue line is where I've got in mind for my next two legs. Two months this time, starting back in Sumatra, then Malaysia, Thailand and into Cambodia. Then... later this year, back to Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia again, then home via Thailand. That's the plan... and to be truthful, that's about as detailed as the plan is at the moment.

Great thread

hey bigfella

how and what maps are you using to upload to here...???????????????????
computer dumby this way

enjoying the rr

reef

Nothing special there... I stuffed up the setup of my SpotAdventures page when I was trying to get organised to get away.... so for these maps, I just grabbed a couple of images via google,... put them into PowerPoint and drew the trip onto them freehand.

I've had the GPS on the bike again since Bali (it broke on Cape York and it took a while to get Garmin to sort it out). I download the tracks every day now, so have those for Bali onwards, including elevation data. Trouble with that though is that some days it might turn on and off over the big bumps and I end up with multiple tracks for the one day.

"""I just grabbed a couple of images via google,... put them into PowerPoint and drew the trip onto them freehand.""

all ok,,so thats how you do it,,,
thanks for the heads up will give it a try
google maps is good but a pain in the ass if you want to change the route and you have already saved the map,,,there could be a easy way to change it but i havent found it ..

""Trouble with that though is that some days it might turn on and off over the big bumps and I end up with multiple tracks for the one day"".

I also get this using the GRRRRRRR garmin zumo 660 GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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thanks again mate for the great RR
when are you going up into central asia/ europe???????

reef

Ouch.... settle down mate.... this trip was originally planned as a rental bike ride of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. I think it might wear a bit thin with the missus if I kept on riding, although I do have some ideas for future rides.

No... this one finishes after the HCMT... and maybe a side-trip into Burma, but that will be without the bike.

The woman is a Saint!

She is a rare species!!