Desaru to Tanjung Sutera

We left Desaru with a headwind and light rain. It was actually quited refreshing once we took our raincoats off (these coats will almost certainly be posted home when we find a post office - along with some vests and a whole heap of other extraneous stuff that is weighing us down). The temp was 25 degrees and it was excellent riding for ten kms north to our planned stop. We knew that beyond this point it would be hard and long going so we had planned to break the trip with another night at a different resort.

However, after covering the distance in a record time of just over half an hour, we couldn't justify the hassle of packing and repacking and staying another night so close to where we had been so we decided to press on to a resort we had seen on the internet.

It looked to be about 40kms distant. It turned out to be 70kms away.

The ride was tough, with many long ascents and lots of rolling hills that stopped us getting a good rhythm up. Luckily the kids slept for almost two hours at the beginning of the trip, and their waking up coincided with flatter riding towards the end of the leg. Mark had the cycling computer up and running and it told us that we averaged 17kmph over the course of the seventy kilometers, not too shabby considering we were riding at what seemed like less than walking pace up some of the hills. To Bella's delight we also clocked in over 40kmph down one of the hills!

The landscape was a mix of jungle and palm plantation, with some cleared farmland as well. Arriving at our target resort near Tanjung Sutera we were stuffed and settled in for the night after a dip in the rather unimpressive pool.

The resort was ok, perched on a headland with good views of the ocean but no beach. Lots of mozzies despite the breeze too. Lesson learnt from today - pack heaps of dates and nashi fruit as the kids really loved snacking on these.

Ramunia Beach to Desaru Beach

We spent the morning before the ride having breakfast with Siva and Sharmini's family (whom we had met at Changi Village the day before), and they very generously filled us in on some key Malay phrases and yummy things to eat.  After some great times playing in the surf it was time to go and we reluctantly said goodbye.

It's never the same on the ground as it is on the map.  Such was the case with this leg of our trip, where 20kms as the crow flies over flat terrain turned into 35kms over rolling hills in 36 degree heat.  We are not complaining - on the contrary, we really felt like we got to stretch our legs - however we both were dipping into our reserves on some of those hills.  We also managed to finish all of our water too!  Suffice to say we were happy with our progress.

We arrived at Desaru Beach in the nick of time, as we were fatigued and thirsty.  The first resort we hit had no rooms available - which was very worrying and very unexpected (everything we had read said it was low season). The second resort fortunately had space, and it was at this point we found out it was a weekend and Monday was a public holiday in Singapore hence the high occupancy.

The Damai Desaru as our hotel was called was great, despite the monster cockroach we terminated in the bathroom on the first day.  Biggest. Insect. Ever.

We soon forgot all about it when we saw the beach and the view out the window.  10kms of practically deserted beach (the locals seemed to prefer the pool and we were the only foreigners around).  The owners of the hotel were very friendly, shouting Bron dinner and giving Bella a lovely cowrie shell.  All in all the hotel was spectacular so we stayed two nights. Wait, who are we kidding? Our legs hurt too and we needed a break!