Malaysia - 2021

What better excuse to spend a week of one's holidays travelling down the beautiful East coast of Peninsular Malaysia than preparing for an upcoming Trans Oz effort? The need to ensure I was still capable of completing 100km days back-to-back-to-back, whilst fully loaded was perhaps more mental than physical. Nevertheless, I decided that I ought to try my luck and fly north from KL to Kota Bharu. After meeting up with my friend and fellow cyclist, Jules, partway through we skirted 750km down the coast, in what we had been warned would be the wet season. Seven days later we reached our destination, having encountered only the briefest of thunderstorms. The roti telur-fueled experience assuaged my fears. The kit was up to scratch, my legs whilst older, were still in good nick and Doug had the capacity to carry enough water to hydrate even my ridiculously sweaty body. Having "proven" to myself that a hiatus of nine and a half years between tours was no barrier to success I promptly disassembled Doug for maintenance and didn't ride him again until Mike and I met in Darwin seven months later (although for some reason I neglected to tell Mike I had taken such a long break).