2019-04-20 3 98

Location

In a palm plantation near Medan, Sumatra

Participants

Felix Dance

Expedition

Two Alexes and myself were on a week-long cycle tour in Northern Sumatra, where we'd planned to ride up to and around Lake Toba, the dormant super-volcano. We were on Day 1, heading out of the city of Medan, when I discovered this hash. It was only 1km off our intended route. Hard to pass up an opportunity like this!

So, when we neared the turnoff, I alerted the others as to my intentions. The two Alexes seemed okay about spending 45 mins in a wooden 'cafe' at the turnoff while I went on my jaunt (I knew it was a long shot to convince them to come along).

I took the small, sealed road, crossed the river valley, and quickly arrived at an extremely bumpy unsealed road. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to the hash at all, particularly since the hash was actually a couple of hundred metres off the rough road I was on.

I passed a school, and a few curious locals. Soon my new off-road touring bike finally had an opportunity to show off its capabilities - I veered off the road and onto a small goat track through palm plantations, around small dams and into the mud.

After a hundred or so metres I could go no further and left my bike on the track, continuing the journey on foot. I scrambled over a few mounds, rounded some more dams and finally arrived at the hash. I took some photos, got to within 1m, and ran back to my bike. I was back at the others with 8 minutes to spare on my promised deadline.

Here is the route we took that day.