This post, will be my last post on this site. But no tears (of joy), please… This is because we are swinging out to a new fan-dabby-dozy site. A huge thank you to Ester, Fikri and Westley for my new and much improved digs, which undoubtedly is a squillion times better to handle things as we approach the final month. Can't thank you enough!
You will notice on the new site, as well as the above video highlighting the individuals you can help by supporting the yayasans - is that the home page slider allows you to follow my journey in real-time. Thus as I make my way from the northern-most tip of Sumatra, the site will provide you with my exact position (give or take the odd metre), my average speed, my time perched on the saddle, the distance covered and my elevation gain. The other great thing is that the website is fully integrated with Becakterus' 'kitabisa' fundraising website. Where if you wish, you can choose to make a small online donation to one or all of the yayasans. Therefore, from the 1st of September onwards, anyone that pulls up this 'blog.spot' will automatically be diverted to the new website. I look forward to welcoming you all in the coming days to www.becakterus.com Becak-ingly yours, Becakterus
Indomie a stable for many, not just in Indonesia. ‘Indomie is the world’s largest instant noodle manufacturer which is located in Indonesia. The products’ distribution line covers diverse continents such as Australia, Asia, Africa, the United States and many European countries like the UK.’
It is also one of the best products worldwide for ultra endurance type events in terms of taste, time to prep, light on the stomach, and hands down a winning ratio in grams to energy ratio. Indomie is light in weight but dense in calories, an excellent high energy meal, which without doubt will be consumed by Becakterus on his trip through Sumatra.
We are therefore delighted to unveil as a Gold Sponsor, and with a donation of 80 Million rupiah; Indofood - the Symbol of Quality Food. Thank you so much Indofood for your wonderful support.
I am thrilled to announce that Benton Strategy Solutions, based in Scotland but with experience here in Indonesia has agreed to sign up as a Bronze Sponsor. Thank you Shona for your Rp 10 million donation.
‘Experienced change
management specialist, passionate about helping companies achieve their vision
and goals. Recently gained a
Masters in management of diverse cultures. With contacts to make
larger group, if necessary.You are the expert in
'what' you want to achieve, my expertise is in 'how' you get there.’
We are also delighted to have JPC signed on as a silver sponsor with a Rp25 million donation. Mr Hasan, thank you, we all appreciate your kind support.
And joining JPC as a silver sponsor, also with a donation of Rp25 million is EPA. Thank you again, Pak Stephen for your fantastic support.
We also would like to thank Melinda and Mike Hawkins for their generous personal donation of Rp 5 million, which was matched by Intiprima Karya Usaha. And from Scotland, we received personal donations totalling Rp7 million from Diana & Kenny, Andrew & Sandra Gallacher, Jane & Dougie, Netta Forbes and Irene Crichton. Thank you all for your kind donations. * I've taken an executive decision (doesn't happen often;)), and decided to only post the total funds raised in Indonesian Rupiah, at least until the markets sort themselves out. Converting at today's exchange rate of Rp14,000/US$ is a far cry from the currency exchange rate at the start of this year!
The schedule has been
pushed back slightly and we're now looking to start from the Tsunami Museum in Banda
Aceh on Monday 28th September, and then try and be in Jakarta by Sunday 18th
October - a touch longer than the 5 minutes it will take you to watch the fly-over video below:).
* A massive thank you to team YCAB, and in particular Fauzan, for their help in putting this video together. Thank you.
We'll have a late start
on the 1st day to accommodate a small gathering at the start line before heading south. And again the
final 3 days will be short to allow for the ferry crossing between Sumatra and
Java, and hopefully also leave a spare hour or 2 should we need to make up time.
This means I'll be averaging 140 km/day down the length of Sumatra. Doesn’t sound a lot on a
bicycle, but on the becak, it will consume almost all the daylight hours available. And on days the schedule demands, we'll need to push on into the night; provided of course the road conditions permit.
During my long training rides, my speed has averaged out at around 12 km/hr,
which on a bicycle is desperately slow, but on a rickshaw - yes, it's desperately slow too! The becak as documented weighs a fair bit,
so on wee hills I’ll be off to the left and pushing it, and on big hills I’ll
be off to the front and pulling it. The pushing/pulling speed will be below 5km/hour.
From the video of the route, you see we'll be following the main eastern road artery (Jalan Raya Lintas Timur Sumatra), which
links the provincial capital cities of Medan, Pekanbaru, Jambi City, Palembang,
Bandar Lampung; to Banda Aceh in the north and Indonesia's capital city to the south-east, some 2,600kms away.
If anyone would like to
join me for any of the legs, please just drop me a line. As you will note below, I will
spend approximately 4 days in Aceh, 3 days travelling through North Sumatra, 4 days in Riau, a split second crossing the Equator, 3 more days in Jambi, 3 days in South Sumatra, 2
days in Lampung, 1 day in Banten, and the final run to Jakarta Raya. At least that's the plan for now.
With regards to help finding places to stay along the way, I really can't thank Raty and her team enough at PACTO Travel Services for their support. Finding places to stay has not been easy, and at this stage it only requires a single night home-stay. PACTO have been extremely generous in the past, and it is reassuring to have them back on board. Thank you very much PACTO.
In closing off, I would also like to extend my thanks to the children out at Yayasan Puspita. The young students very kindly researched each of the 8 provinces that we'll pass through on my journey to Jakarta, and they provided me with their research notes. All useful stuff, and as pointed out, through helping me it provided a great way to increase their knowledge of their own
country. Thank you team Puspita - your research notes will be a great introduction and very useful as I enter each new province.
The focus over the past couple of months has been on conditioning my 'points of contact' whilst perched on the becak. It will be long days on my ride south from Banda Aceh, and the biggest area of concern, naturally, will be my largest point of contact - an area that is a long time pampered with Johnson's soft scented baby wipes and baby powder (TMI, I know).
During all my training runs, 'things' have held up fine and dandy for the first 6 hours or so, but past that my resolve is tested. For after the first 5 minutes, 'things' are damp from sweat, and stay that way until you finally have had enough.
Therefore managing saddle sores in the tropics will be critical. Now, Slip-slop-slap is a well known sun protection campaign from Australia; which we can now extend to an area where the sun rarely shines (if at all). Knowing a couple of keen cyclist, Becakterus turned to Big Al and Andy Boy for some sound advice, and both were quick to offer to 2 sound maxims: 1), apply hunners (lots) and mean hunners (loads) of chamois cream and 2), when you think you've applied enough, go on and slap some more on.
Between Becakterus and the anti-friction soothing cream, I'll be wearing top notch bib shorts, which have been provided along with other apparel by the UK's top cycle clothing firm - Endura. Becakterus met up with the man behind 'Born in Scotland - Ridden Worldwide', Jim MacFarlane, and he very generously agreed to support my challenge. Thank you Endura and Jim for supporting Becakterus with all the necessary gear.
"Endura sponsors two professional cycle racing teams, Movistar and NetApp-Endura (making it the first clothing brand to have its name on the Tour de France team sheet), and takes constant feedback from the riders trying out new products for it." As well as Endura's visibility in this year's Tour de France (and now in Sumatra;)), they also provide ongoing sponsorship to a number of athletes http://www.endurasport.com/sponsorship/athletes/ - including the likes of Danny MacAskill. See Danny doing his thing in the video below.
Like Indonesia, Scotland is a beautiful land and will forever hold a very special place in my heart (if you haven't been to either, you're missing out). Which brings me back to my biggest area of concern re largest 'point of contact'. On my trip back to Scotland last month, I did something I doubt I'll ever do again (never say never though), which was to hand carry my trusty saddle to and from Scotland. My phone and saddle never left my side on the 28,000 km round trip. Sounds odd, but I felt it was the right thing to do under the circumstances. Furthermore, between now and the start on 28th September, if it feels like it, the saddle that is - gets to sleep with Becakterus.
The Rumah Belajar (learning centre) shown in the video below, was only possible through the amazing support we received on the Bali to Jakarta fundraiser. We are thrilled to say the e-learning centre has had a positive impact on youth education in this remote part of Bali. In total, YCAB estimate that the lives of over 2,650 youths have been touched by Berlariterus through the YCAB Foundation since 2012.
From the screen grab below, and the link to the local partner's website - http://cempakaputih.org/?p=656 - we can see your support continues to provide something tangible and sustainable within this community.
In total, we raised Rp3.8 billion, or approximately US$400,000 on the Bali to Jakarta charity run. With the funds YCAB received, they were able to open 4 new learning centres. This first 1 in
Bali, and 3 more centres in Banyuwangi, Situbondo and Jakarta respectively. The fourth centre YCAB opened in Jakarta, had
the honour of welcoming the then Governor of Jakarta, and now, the current President of Indonesia to an open day, President Joko Widodo.
Now that I'm back in Jakarta, I'll try and get a few more posts out over the coming week or so.
Hope you are all keeping well. Nanti, Becakterus...
Yes, I am delighted to share with
you that the total donations to date now sit at IDR659,000,000
or US$50,690 (at an exchange rate of Rp13,000/US$). Thank you all for your support.
My heartfelt thanks
to Fiona Forrest and her 'Foundation of Unity'. Fiona's Foundation has donated Rp25 Million towards the Becakterus appeal. Thank you for your Silver sponsorship.
I must tell you last year, Fiona walked around the entire island
of Bali - a truly amazing effort in support of her own yayasans. Well done my dear!
I would also like to thank
Bank Ekonomi for coming in as a Bronze sponsor and donating Rp10 Million.
Thank you my good friend, Mr Tony Turner.
And very generously, Tony and Karen matched this sponsorship
- Rupiah for Rupiah - by personally donating Rp10 Million. Thank you so much, ‘those turners’:-).
Individual personal donations
of course are most welcome, and I would like to thank Cynthia Wihardja on
making a personal donation of Rp1 Million. Many thanks Cynthia.
For anyone else out there
interested in making a personal donation to the appeal, we will be setting up a
fund raising page online where credit card payments may be lodged. It will be Indonesian Rupiah
based, so anyone wishing to transfer from an overseas currency nominated card,
please do check the zeros (exchange rate) prior to making your donation. Thank
you in advance. I’ll be back with more details on this online appeal site as we
enter the final month.
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be ‘pulang kampong’ to Scotland for a few weeks; which means some lovely
Scottish weather to not look forward
to, and no Becakterus training to worry me... but sure I'll find other ways to keep my
legs turning in circles.
And in closing, to those celebrating, I would
like to wish you a Happy Eid Mubarak, Selamat Idul Fitri, and happy and safe holidays
to you and your families.
