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11 Jul 2018
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We had breakfast at the hotel and there were actually other foreigners, which we have not seen in ages. Today we are going to the culturally unique Torajan Area.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.24.18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7573 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7577 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The first order of business for the day was to find the ATM type that works for our card and this was easy as we passed one after 5 minutes. Then to buy gas. This was easy, but they only had 88 octane “premium” and no pertomax or max turbo (92 or 95). It was ok as we have a half tank of turbo. The first 64 km to Rupang took 3 hours as it was a continuous line of traffic and was exhausting.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.24.34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7581 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We stopped here for a cold drink and then headed north with much less traffic and especially very few scooter maniacs. The road condition is pretty good in most places except in the towns. This is a mostly Christian area and there are a lot of churches.
 FILE7590 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7598 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7615 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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11 Jul 2018
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We entered the Toraja region and the traffic was thicker again. We had booked into a home stay in a traditional Torajan house, but found that her google listing, her bookings listing, and maps.me are all incorrect. After 45 min of driving around very hot, tired and extremely frustrated we finally called her for instructions.
These were go south to the Catholic church and turn right and go across the bridge and then turn left and then turn past the restaurant. This was all good until the turn left… this leads down a one lane road to nowhere and then deteriorated and we turned back.
Another call to the owner and a “meet us at the bridge”. She rode up on a scooter “a right turn” off the bridge. Seriously we are pissed and hot and tired. Luckily for her she is a very nice woman and the house is very cool. She must know her listings are wrong since she gave us the GPS coord some other travelers gave her, but a bit late now. That said she served us tea and sesame cookies and then we had a nap before dinner. This was a very nice home cooked meal on our patio.
 FILE7661 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2961 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2962 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-25 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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11 Jul 2018
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11 Jul 2018
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WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTOS!
Suddenly the man slashed his throat (not well enough) and the scene was quite graphic with spurting blood and the poor creature jumping and staggering. The job was poorly done as he trashed about and fell and then rose and fell and trashed about some more, which was impossible to watch. Families are all here to watch this even with children. I did not watch the next, but Dan said that the cut was much deeper and the animal looks to have died quite quickly. He did however have to watch his fellow suffer a few minutes before! It was actually pretty horrific. We had seen enough and left. Driving past later we saw that they were butchering all 4 animals right there.
 Sulawesi-40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-42 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-43 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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We drove up the road to Kalimbuang where they have standing stones. Each represents a death and most of them from higher society. There are some stone stair cases from the main area and these lead to ancient graves that are carved into man made caves in the rocks.
 Sulawesi-85 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-55 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-53 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-54 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-58 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-62 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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From here we drove south again to the burial caves at Londa. There was quite a traffic jam and on this narrow road a tight squeeze.
 Sulawesi-63 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-89 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Here you can see the cliff face from the viewpoint and then when you get close you can see the coffins and bones. There are also quite a few effigies. The caves itself have ancient and new (2 months old) burials. We had a lot of people that wanted a picture with us...seems a bit strange.
 Sulawesi-64 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-65 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-66 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-67 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-68 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-69 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-70 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-71 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-72 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-73 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-74 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-75 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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From here we drove almost back to Makale and then up the mountain to the Jesus Blessing statue. The traffic was mayhem and people were parked on both sides of the narrow road up the tight switch backs and some were double parked. There are a huge number of people here at the mountain top with the massive Jesus Christos on top. They seemed more interested in us as many came running up and asked us is they could take a photo with us. We also had a very nice school group that wanted to practice there English with us (they did very well).
 Sulawesi-86 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-87 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-97 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-98 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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Back at the car Dan and I had to block traffic in both direction mostly for the unruly scooter kids and other drivers so that our driver could turn his car around. We headed back down the mountain and then up into the village of Kambira to see the ancient baby graves in the tree trunks.
 Sulawesi-90 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-91 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-92 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-101 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
It is now after 4 and we are pretty tired and so we skipped the last stop on my agenda and headed home. This still took and hour to go 18 km on the narrow back road as we were slowed by cars parked on the verge inhibiting the flow of the 2 way traffic on the 1 lane road, the scooters, and the pretty poor road condition. This did give us lots of opportunity to hop out for photos though.
 Sulawesi-93 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-95 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-96 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-103 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-102 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-99 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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It is Monday today and we confirmed today with Aditya that the ferry from Pula to Balikpopan on Borneo does go twice a week on Tuesday and Saturday at 2200 h and it takes 22 hours (oh Joy). Pula or the ferry dock just north is 567 km from here and at our pace of 200 km per day taking 7 hours this is 3-4 days, which puts us there Friday June 22 (6 year anniversary of our trip and 21 of our wedding).
The plan today was to ride about 1/3 of the way to the ferry and this would be about 200 km. Based on where we can get accommodation this would be 190 km in Tomoni where there is 1 Hotel Sikumbang.
Setting out from our Torajan house at 830 we had about 2 km to back track down the 1 lane back road thru the rice fields and then across the bridge.
 FILE7681 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7689 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
This dumps you on the main road, which is a steady stream of traffic in both directions. This is made worse by several buses, slow trucks, the usual people parked on the road, and washed out pavement sections. Luckily we only have about 8 km of this to get thru the town of Rante Pao and turn towards Palopo.
 FILE7696 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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12 Jul 2018
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Once we were away from the city there was less and less traffic all day.
 FILE7707 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7716 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The first section rises up over the mountains and we were not impeded on the way up as we had passed several slow moving lines and a particularly slow truck and this gave us smooth sailing ahead.
 FILE7750 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
This lasted until about 15 km from Palopo when we ran into a few difficult to pass vehicles on the down side. One especially unfriendly bus driver purposefully would block the lane when there was a place we could pass. Dan eventually got by and then basically stopped on the road so the bus would have to let me by on the corner! Once we arrived to Palopo we made the left turn and the road was wide sweeping turns or basically straight. The traffic began to really thin especially the number of scooters. We had taken 90 minutes to go the first 65 km to Palopo, but once passed here we got up some speed and even spent time over 80! I have not been in 6 th gear since I arrived to Indonesia.
 Sulawesi-104 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We made great time and arrived to our destination at Tomoni at 1330. It a pretty hot humid day and we decided to push on the 2 hours and 77 km to Pindolo on the lake.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.27.35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
This means another mountain to cross, but also some cooler temperatures. The road up is steep and switchbacks with a lot of disrupted and heaved up pavement on some of the hair pins, which were a challenge at times. We managed to pass a number of trucks and cars and then one final long line of vehicles following a very big slow truck and then we basically had a free run the rest of the way. It started to rain about half way and at the 1 hour mark and this did slow us down a bit especially on the dirty corners. The sun was out on the far side and there is about 20 km of new road to the town of Pindolo. Here there is one hotel on the lake and we are the only guests. It is still the holiday week and most Muslims will be home with family and the hotels are empty. There are 2 small beds with foam mats, cold shower only and a bucket flush toilet. No sink oddly enough! They did however make us some sate for dinner. We were exhausted and asleep by just after 9. Dan was awake at 2 am reading and I was awoken by the torrential rain.
 FILE7756 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7779 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7788 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7819 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-105 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Last edited by saralou; 12 Jul 2018 at 15:14.
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12 Jul 2018
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Not sure how far we can make it today. The weather forecast is not that good and Pula is a 7 hour trip on google! There are a few hotel in Tolai in 213 km.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.32.54 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We woke up after a 10 hour sleep to cloudy skies. Our breakfast was “crepes” which were ok but not that filling. We headed out of town north again and there is almost no traffic. The initial terrain is flat along the lake and then it climbs over the first of the ranges. We had few vehicles to deal with passing on the curvy road. We had a brief 15 min of heavy rain, but welcomes the soaking as then we had some air cooling. In the rain shadow on the down side it was sunny and we stopped in Ratodena at the far end of the lake for gas and to check the oil. The bikes have been burning oil lately and we are having to top them up. Dan however had found a trick to deal with his valve issue. If he rocks the bike before he starts it it fires right up. Yeah its not the starter! This 106 KM took us 2 hours.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.27.55 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7837 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7839 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7844 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7855 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7899 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7918 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7922 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Leaving town you have to head back towards the black rain cloud an this time we donned the rain jackets as it was very heavy for about 20 minutes.
 FILE7942 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The road turns north again along the big northern Sulawesi peninsula. Here we again had almost no traffic, but we did have some vehicles to pass on the next mountain section, but at least it was dry.
 FILE7945 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Sulawesi-106 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7965 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We made for Poso at the coast and found a Warung to have some lunch of spicy chicken, vegetable soup, curried fish and rice (4.50$). Lunch what a novel concept, but after the crepes we would need a real meal breakfast bars and Pocky like yesterday would not do. We had 130 km to go at 1230 after lunch and was a hot, but easy ride as there was still few other vehicles except scooters. The road is windy, but wider and more high speed.
 FILE7971 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7975 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Arriving to Tolai we checked out the hotel we had seen on Google and it was simple, but comfortable.
Last edited by saralou; 12 Jul 2018 at 16:00.
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12 Jul 2018
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Today we finally make for Palu in 114 km , the town where the ferry will leave in 2 days time.
 Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 15.31.26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7985 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The forecast was for it to be pouring by 10. When we set out it was sunny, but it was actually still raining on us from some cloud near by.
 FILE7988 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE7991 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The road goes up the coast for 46 km until Toboli and is 4 lane divided for a while. It then turns west over the mountains. We were very lucky as we passed 6-7 very slow (12 km/hr) moving big trucks near then beginning, which were not too difficult to pass and then we had just a few cars the rest of the 43 km.
 FILE8000 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8019 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8027 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8036 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
At the cross road we turned north to where the port was listed on Google. We “chatted” to the guys there and then one drove up on a scooter who spoke some English. He said we needed to go “towards the city 9 km and turn left before the bridge”. Well at least we got the 9 km back part.
 FILE8088 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8094 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We actually crossed the bridge and at the next light we stopped on the side of the road. A minute later a man who was actually a port customs agent pulled up and asked what we were looking for. When we said the Balikpapan ferry he said to go back and then lead us there! He also went into the ticket office to help Dan get information. We confirmed the ferry leaves in 2 day on June 23 and they say at 1900. We have to be there at 1400! I think it loads at 1900 and leaves at 2200.
 FILE8102 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Screen Shot 2018-06-25 at 22.43.38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flick
 Sulawesi-107 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Last edited by saralou; 12 Jul 2018 at 16:18.
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12 Jul 2018
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Then we made for the city and they only decent hotel we could find to spend out anniversary The Best Western. Well it is nice to have a western standard hotel.
It is super hot here and we did not venture too far from the hotel. We dropped the laundry just up the street.
 IMG_2975 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
On the way there was a small kiosk with a line up and several GRAB moto taxi guys waiting to delivery from the Banana Bim. These are deep fried banana fritters covered in various sauces! We chose chocolate and peanuts. WOW amazing.
 IMG_2979 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2976 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2978 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2981 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Also near by was this restaurant with good food some very friendly staff.
 IMG_2983 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We also found a Yamaha shop near by to but some oil for the bikes. Both have been burning some recently, but the 650 is a real issue especially when it it really hot out.
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13 Jul 2018
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Today we are leaving Sulawesi and headed to Borneo better known as Kalimantan. The ferry dock is 18 km north and takes about 30 minutes.
 Screen Shot 2018-07-13 at 21.36.19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8108 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE8116 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We arrived to the ASDP dock at 2. You have to stop at the port authority booth and pay 40,000R per person for the port fee. Then you pull forward to the ferry office to buy your ticket. The tickets were 1/2 what we expected at 400,000 R per bike. This is for a 24 hour ferry ride and meals (rice and a boiled egg or rice and a chicken finger or rice and sautéed cabbage)!
 Screen Shot 2018-06-25 at 22.43.28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Parking we drew quite a crowd and everyone wanted a photo! Lots of people had questions and luckily here was also another rider from Palu who spoke English well and we chatted about Indonesia and our trip thru him.
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
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Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
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"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada
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"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia
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Lots more comments here!
Diaries of a compulsive traveller
by Graham Field
Book, eBook, Audiobook
"A compelling, honest, inspiring and entertaining writing style with a built-in feel-good factor" Get them NOW from the authors' website and Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk.
Back Road Map Books and Backroad GPS Maps for all of Canada - a must have!
New to Horizons Unlimited?
New to motorcycle travelling? New to the HU site? Confused? Too many options? It's really very simple - just 4 easy steps!
Horizons Unlimited was founded in 1997 by Grant and Susan Johnson following their journey around the world on a BMW R80G/S.
Read more about Grant & Susan's story
Membership - help keep us going!
Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.
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