We had the usually pitiful little breakfast of toast and tea then we tried to run some errands. We spent three hours accomplishing little. So it was after noon before we were ready to leave. I considered staying because we expected a long hard road ahead. I calculated that if we did not leave by 11 a.m., it was very unlikely we would arrive before dark. Be we left anyway, knowing full well that even if the road turned out to be easier than we expected, we could hardly make it to the next large town, Tarutung, before dark. I felt awful about it. As a send off from PSP, a young man jumped out in front of Joan and yelled, "FUCK YOU!"

Almost immediately it became apparent that the road would actually be far harder than we had anticipated. It's already hard enough leaving at noon on a sunny day one degree north of the equator but on top of that we had a major climb right out of town. We made our first drink stop after just 4km. Joan and I were both angry about not accomplishing anything all morning and we hardly spoke. We hardly even responded to the barrage of "Hey Meestir", "Touris!" and "I love you."

It was so hot and the hill was so steep and I was so miserable that I reached the "Don't give a damn" point. I didn't care about my comfort or the fact that we were doomed to finish in the dark. I ignored my thirst and I ignored the heat and just pedaled like a machine. It's not pleasant but the time passes faster that way.

After the initial quick ascent out of PSP, we had an equally quick descent. But the descent just put us at the bottom of the really big climb. We spent the next two hours going only about 15 or 20km to the summit. We could see pretty far from the summit but the thick haze made it a little less dramatic. While we ate lunch near the top a bus got a flat tire out in front of the restaurant. We watched them fix it while the passengers watched us eat.

I don't think buses or trucks get much preventative maintenance. We see them broken down beside the road all the time.

In the town of Sipirok, a man flying a kite (very popular activity on Sumatra) acted like he wasn't paying attention and walked backwards, looking up at his kite, towards the road as we approached. Just as Joan passed him, he turned quickly and screamed, "HALLO!" He and his friends thought this was very funny. (This is just one case, the same sort of thing happens to us every day.) Later a motorcycle with a sidecar intentionally turned toward Joan to scare her off the road. Fortunately she stayed on the road but the driver and his passenger got a good laugh.

We already felt tired, late, and irritable. These tauntings by the locals had me ready to attack the next person who bothered me.

(Joan: Unfortunately, this is where our love affair with Sumatra ended. We had spent the first two days out of Padang thinking how lovely it was and wondering why we hadn't spent less time on Java and more on Sumatra. Now, nearly a year later, I think we spent the right time on both).

A little bit after Sipirok the road descended steeply through mostly jungle. Some sections of the road just seemed to be missing. For 10 meters here or there we rode across loose rocks and gravel. We went down and down until we finally reached a wide valley with lots of rice padis and but also vegetable fields - corn in particular. At one point we had a long view across the valley. Many people worked at different activities. Some hoed, some drove animals, some drove machinery, some carried stuff, some tended fires. We saw white smoking rising from small fires dotted across the landscape. I'm not sure of the purpose for these fires. Many people carried umbrella into the field for protection against the sun as well as the rain. The fields have small clumps of one to five palm trees here and there and usually lots of grass roofed sheds that workers can use for protection. We see a lot of bikes parked at the edge of the road, presumably that is how the workers commute.

Despite being in a nice wide valley, the road had the irritating habit of climbing up the hills on the east side then descending back down again. We did not make great time. On the bright side, sunset on the highway about 25km south of Tarutung, our destination, was beautiful. We don't see many sunsets because of the typical afternoon cloud cover. The warm glow of the low sun made the green fields especially pretty. I regret we didn't take any pictures. At the time I just wanted to get to Tarutung before dark even though it was hopeless.

This made Joan mad. She wanted to stop for a drink but I wanted to push on and get as many kilometers in as we could before dark. We didn't speak again for a few kms.

By the time it got dark, about a half hour later, we realized that we had been climbing for a long time with only a few small descents mixed in. Joan was exhausted and started walking her bike up the steep parts, which started to become all the time. The moment I had been dreading all day had finally arrived. It was dark, we were still a long ways from Tarutung, and we were climbing a mountain.

We went on like this until about 18km from Tarutung. It was totally dark and Joan started flagging down vehicles. She stopped one huge truck and nothing could get around it in either direction. While she tried to explain that we wanted a ride the Trans-Sumatra highway was temporarily at a standstill. Many people stopped but no one had room for us. A pickup truck that did have room, did not stop. But we got lucky. An "opelet" (public minibus) stopped for us and it had only had three or four passengers. Everyone got out and helped unload the bikes, get the gear inside and the bikes on the roof.

The opelet continued to climb until about five or 10km from Tarutung where it appear to level off. But it was dark and we were in a van so it was hard to tell.

We were able to talk to one man. He didn't speak as much English as we spoke Indonesian but he at least understood our Indonesian. We asked him where we should stay in Tarutung. He had a conversation with the whole van and they suggested Hotel Safari. The driver took us right to the door. We paid 10,000rp for the ride, which seemed a little steep, but was well worth it.

We arrived at Hotel Safari about 8:30pm. Three or four guys helped with our bags and bikes. One guy really wanted to hear me play my horn so I played the Godfather for him. He absolutely loved it. He laughed and clapped and thought it just the greatest thing. I like appreciative audiences.

We ate at a little warung where we met another of the great warung owners. She had seven kids. She sat down next to us to talk and every time we wanted something she sent a kid away to get it for us. A truly excellent manager.

Next: Tartung to Tuk Tuk and the road to Medan

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