After a long debate of which destination that are suitable to held a 1st gathering, a place that has great track and great scenery... 21st and 22nd of June 2009 in Dieng..Central Java! Yes Dieng Plateau was the place.. A remote area located 2500m above sea level with a great scenery and a great track we are set for a great adventure...
here are the participants: Jogjakarta Rider pouwel Bandung Riders adedj9 ice breaker Jakarta Riders mas rambo a.k.a T-Redz kuncung and me...h17
Although only attended by 6 participant, with 6 thumpers.. We all feel that we are riding a GS or a V-Storm... So here is the report: 21st june 4.00am Me, T-Redz & Kuncung meet up at McDonald Kalimalang the first meeting point for Jakarta Riders. Second after meeting I was told that a fellow rider (nino) from Bogor not yet afiliated in ADV wants to tag along to a city of Batang and then he will continue to Semarang solo.. While waiting for Nino suddenly four GS came in and park on McDonald, Its a rare situation and definitely rare to watch a GS on the street of indonesia where mostly people only can afford a small Thumpers. I was wondering are this GS riders are affiliated to the ADV forum? After talking with them it tourns out that they know nothing about the Forum, what a pity they don't know it. They are going to Jogjakarta they said with an escort of two police harley. Its not an adventure if you're being escorted to your destination.. Then again let it be their adventure.. Our adventure is the ADV way.
starting 4.30 from kalimalang headed east on the north part of the island we entered the city of indramayu at 8.00 am. After a 15 minute brake at the local Gas Station we had our way to our next meeting point at the city of Cirebon. Because of the national road in this area are been re-asphalt. The traffic from Indramayu to Cirebon are packed with trucks, minibus, large bus and other small cars, we can't gain up any speed above 40km/h After passing the city of Cirebon things got in worse where the traffic became a Jam of trucks, bus, and other commuters. We were lucky that we met the GS riders earlier, since they were escorted by the police we had permission to tag along to be escorted out of this hell of traffic.
On the city of Losari we met with ADV Riders from Bandung adedj9 & ice_breaker. On the city of Tegal we took lunch and break from the hot weather.
2 hours after on the city of Batang Nino continue east solo while the group turn heading east to a small town of Bandar where Pouwel the only rider from Jogjakarta.
On Bandar where we meet Pouwel, we decided to pick a route that are challenging for bikes equip with street tire (only kuncung uses dual sport tire). The route was challenging because of its different track from asphalt, to gravel and loose rocks.
Its kinda hard and chalenging for a small cc thumpers with street tire to endure the route, but we all feel that we had fun. Kuncung was the victim of the narrow loose stone track, his GL160 loose power when trying to overcome the narrow road and made him to let go of the bike so it fall. Viilagers who are all farmer was closed to the incident so they at a quick time manage to help Kuncung to pick up the bike.
After a short brake and fixing some loose parts of kuncung's bike we continue to Dieng, just in time for sunset, although the sunset was covered by the fog and clouds it looks amazing for all of us... We just stop just to enjoy the moment. The day are gettingg darker and its time to go to the city of Wonosobo to get some rest on a decent inn so in the morning we can go back explore Dieng more deeply. We arive in the small city of Wonosobo at 8pm and got a room with bathroom inside and definetly hot water in a local inn.
