Day 41: Balian Beach to Permuteran

A climb over the central ridge of Bali today to get from the south west coast up to the north coast, with some very steep sections over 20% at times.  

We can cope with a good steady climb, but when it rises above 10% things get tough. If it’s more than 100 metres Sarina and I are off and walking. Tiger managed most of the time, but one particular steep wall had us all walking - and even walking was quite challenging 

Possibly the steepest hill climb in the world  

As we had a lovely lunch somewhere around the high spot for the day, the dark clouds started to gather and then we were soon in a torrential downpour. We have rain jackets and it’s not cold, so this isn’t a big issue. The main drawback we’ve found is it’s almost impossible to use an iPhone in torrential rain. That makes navigating a real challenge. We’ve just about cracked it with an Oakley glasses bag to dry the screen and the holding ​the phone past vertical to keep the rai off, but it’s still a little tricky. 

A long descent, that was not relaxing as the gradients were similar on the way down. My hands aches from squeezing the brakes by the bottom- not something I normally experience. ​

Then we were on the north coast, which we could hoon along on the flat road to get to Permuteran before nightfall. A nice guesthouse let us hose down the bikes, our luggage and ourselves and now we’re safely installed for the night. ​

Check out the mètres climbed. Try that with panniers on! We l