In Reply to: Bicycle Tours posted by barrattt on Wednesday, 28. September 2005 at 18:16 Bali Time:
Mountain bike riding - this was an adventure, all down hill 27k we were told until we got to the last 7 kms then they said some uphill now. Luckily there was a van lurking behind like a vulture just waiting to pick you off as you struggled in the heat, humidity and uphill grind. The group of about 40 broke into 3 sections and this was the last I saw of my son, his cousin and uncle for the next 2 hours - they had taken a wrong turn at a crossroad. There were neither directions nor staff to advise which turn to take and as they were told it was down hill took the wrong turn, at this stage we did not know they had become lost as we were told that there were with the first group. No one told the operators that there were infact 3 groups not 2, when we arrived at the end 2 hours later (knowing we were unfit and last to arrive IN THE VAN) we could not locate the 3 missing people. The tour operator was quickly on a motorbike and had mobile phones ringing left right and centre - 'Don't worry they can't get lost, Bali is an island'. Not a lot of help when we were not sure if the boys would even know if they were lost 11 & 13 we did know that they would be together they are like the 2 legs of a pair of pants. They soon turned up in a van (what seemed like ages) and were disappointed that they were not able to finish the ride. They had in fact been found earlier and were following way behind the last group. I would not reccomend this to people who are not happy going very very fast downhill. There are some daunting hills to ride down and you could quickly get into trouble avoiding other bikes, pot holes, dogs