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28 August 2020: Green Trekkers’ rider took part in a 1000km bicycle ride that started at Morib, Selangor covering 5 states namely Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Johor and Melaka.

Below is some sharing from rider’s perspective:-

The ride started on Friday 28 August. Some 50 riders took part. We tailed along the fast group of for about 50km , which I realized I couldn’t keep up due to lack in mileage and the weight I carry. Mistake that I did not do a test ride with the full load prior to the event. Hantam saja attitude kan?

Oh well, it’s always OK for me to ride alone or with my husband (kesian him lah he had to wait for me). We reached CP1 at 94km about 11am. Had a drink and head for the famous Miku Hill.

Miku Hill was fun. It makes you fall in love until your heart beats out of your chest. No fret if unable to paddle, just get off, throw your ego away and push bike for the sake of the next 900km. The gradient is some 17%? Some said.

The sun was hot to sum it up, hot for the full 3 days on the road. There was one stretch of the road where the workers were laying fresh tarmac..It was still soft and when we rode over, the tarmac got stuck onto our wheels and jammed up our brakes. We carried our bikes on our shoulder and walked on the grass. Later we had to scrap off the sticky oily tarmac off our wheels and move on. It was getting dark and we had dinner at Kemayan, supper at Temerloh and plan to ride on through the night.

Fighting sleepiness was challenging. I like riding at night as it is cool and less vehicle. Love to see the stars and listen to the insects sounds. The most quiet time will be between 3am to 5am. We were heading to Gambang at this time.

Day 2: sunrise at Kuantan. 8am and the sun was already burning. After CP at Teluk Cempedak, I had my first puncture on my front wheel. Subsequently two more punctures after that which I then changed to the spare tyre.

Ride to Pekan was straight, hot, and very little stalls to refill when we finally saw a stall selling coconut water, we drown ourselves in. Also notice that the number of signboards directing traffic to Pekan was too many that you won’t miss it at all.

We had lunch at Pekan then continue our ride to next check point at Nenasi. This stretch comes with strong headwind all the way for about 60km. If we rode faster to cover this stretch in the dark, it could be tail wind?

When we reached cp Nenasi, we met fellow 1k riders. Some wanted to give up with the wind condition. It would be a waste to just give in so easily midway through. We continued on until Tanjung Gemok Jetty (Jetty to Pulau Tioman) and decided to put a night at a hotel as we asked around and hotel seems to be fully booked, same with Mersing due to the long weekends.

Day 3: We slept for about 4 hours, got up, packed and continued. We charged our powerbanks and electronics while we sleep. I think 1 unit of 20,000mah powerbank is sufficient for the entire 1000km if there is chance to charge at the hotel. We moved from Tanjong Gemuk around 5am and arrived Mersing about 6.15am. had breakfast and head on the Jemeluang. Jemeluang was a sleepy town, with rolling hills. Behold the next stretch of endless rolling hills from Jemeluang all the way to Kluang, I swear I could curse them because the hills seems no end! Even when you are in Kluang, the roundabout is on a hill! When we arrived Kluang, it was about 1pm and we had a quick lunch and hurried off. We realized that with the amount of time left, it was exactly the COT of the next 300km. We had no buffer time. We rode on until almost mid night, reaching Melaka just in time to hear some fireworks gone off for Merdeka Day celebration. My tummy started acting up, puking a lot of sour gastric juice. Any food that went in, it couldn’t get digested properly. Especially food with oil. So I avoided eating oily food. Lots of illegal racing during this part of the night, it is quite amusing to see young lads racing off with their motorbikes with exhaust pipe so deafening loud.

The moon light reflection along the coast was very beautiful, the sea was calm. We made our way to the last checkpoint and rode on. It was still rolling but I know the final battle is at Lukut. Climbing Lukut was ok, but after reaching Sepang, my shoulder and lower back started aching. I know it is just a mind-block. Eu Jin suggested to go at 30kmh with 1 hour to spare, I agreed, but could not keep up after 10km of drafting. I changed to small front gear and decided to just paddle leasurely amist the pain I had. I stopped to take a piece of Panadol. Just few more km till the finishing, we arrived just on time of the COT.

It was a fun 4 day journey and yes, would definitely come back again stronger and more enjoyable as our body adapt and learn from this experience, next ride will surely be a better one.