Grand Finale
Desaru Beach Ride
For my last ride in Malaysia, I took advantage of the fact I had a car, and I took Shrek out to the beach in Desaru. It was my first ride on a beach with a fatbike. Verdict: insane fun. Fatbikes on a beach are now up there with a sweet powder day in the trees and a great football match. Riding a fatbike on a beach is simply a bit of heaven.One of my best days ever.
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| This is the end of the beach at Desaru, looking back towards the main beach area. There was a really cool grassy, treed park on the right, and it's delightfully deserted. |
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| Years ago, Rose and I discovered a secret stash of beach north of the popular Desaru stretch. I had always wanted to connect the two stretches, and the only obstacle seemed to be this creek. I tried to find a bridge, but couldn't, so I had to portage. It was about hip deep and super warm. One more advantage of fatbikes: when you portage through water, the big tires' buoyancy make it super easy. |
It turned out that there was more of a break between the two beaches than I realized. I had to not only cross the creek above, then I had to wind up and over a promontory in a plantation. On top of the promontory there were amazing views, and sea eagles roosting.
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| Back on the beach, this time on the secret side. This beach is about five km of uninterrupted smooth sand, and there's never anybody there. I only saw one three person family on the way up, and nobody but a plantation worker sleeping in the trees on the way back down. |
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| The end of the line. I was about twelve km or so from the parking lot when I hit this impasse. Halfway through one of the best bike rides of my life. |
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| When I was almost back to the parking lot, I took advantage of a nice empty spot, and did my best to spell out "I <3 U Yokie". It was my fist go at Strava art like that, and I think it came out OK considering. Yokie loves it. |
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| The last biking picture of me and Shrek in Malaysia. |
https://www.strava.com/activities/386694297
You can see details of the ride with the above link.
All in all it was a fitting end to a hell of a season for Shrek and me in Malaysia. In less than a year, we rode almost 2000 miles. We did a cross country ride, starting in Malaysia, sampling some of Singapore's world class ST, and going back home. We rode in three races, winning all three in the fatbike category. We made tons of biking friends. Most importantly, we stayed safe, and had a hell of a time!