The morning was cool and slightly foggy, it felt very inviting to start cycling. We enjoyed a nice roti first however, a roti canai for her and a roti pisang for him, with a cup of kopi each. It doesn’t have to be difficult... Leaving Kuala Lipis around 7.30am was surprisingly busy, and after a little while we found ourselves on national road no 8, the same as we had been on briefly when leaving Bentong a few days ago. We had to ride about 25km along this big road, not very inspiring, but luckily less busy after some time.
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| Cycling along highway no 8, not as inspiring as some of the other routes of the previous days, but not too bad. |
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| A nice view, still on highway no 8 |
Once in Benta we chose the somewhat longer but nicer route to Raub, via C159, C151 and C142. This was a good 30km of fantastic cycling, it’s very difficult to describe what it looks like and why it was so great. It was utterly beautiful, with charming kampungs, rolling hills, jungle clad cliffs, and almost no traffic so we could enjoy the surroundings at its fullest. Again, some of the best cycling we’ve done! It was a relatively short ride today, so we took our time, had a long break to enjoy the environment, and a lunch 10km before arriving in Raub.
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| Once on the small road, we saw beautiful kampung houses, this one being the absolute winner |
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| View from our coffee break spot |
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| The coffee break spot itself |
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| On the road, loving it! |
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| Arriving at the top of a heavy climb, the only heavy one on our route today - although it was a constantly gently undulating road |
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| Meanwhile the sun had come through again and the temperature was rising, but that couldn’t spoil the fun |
The last few km - luckily only a short stretch - were on road 8 again, very busy now, and we were so happy we took the long but beautiful side road.
Tomorrow it’s time for our big climb towards Fraser Hill!
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| Just to make sure to paint the entire picture: this is on arrival in Raub, having a cold juice before we could check in to our hotel; not much greenery here, urban jungle with lots of cars and exhaust fumes... |