Mountain Biking in Donggongon
People of Sabah, what do you think about when the word Penampang comes to mind? For me I think about Lido, Merdeka supermarket, a large Kadazan-Dusun population and lots of tapai to be had. Last Sunday, I had a very different experience of the Penampang area with some folks from the Borneo Bicycle Cyclists.
BBC at approximately 8km into the Donggongon ride
For one, the planned ride was to start at an ungodly hour; at 6:30am which would be my first dawn ride ever. For seconds I slept at 2:00am. With 3.5 hours sleep, I was leaning toward backing out of a planned 30km-ride but there was a fairy at my ear who kept saying, “Would you rather sleep or live Jackie?” Eyes still closed, torn between fatigue anxiety and a desire to live, I chose to live.
“Just show up and decide later,” the fairy said so I got up and loaded my bike into the car. It took about 40 minutes to drive from Likas to Donggongon, with a stopover at 7-eleven for some cash and Gatorade. After meeting Clement and company, we stopped by at a coffee shop for some breakfast before heading off for the ride at 7:30am.
The Ride
The first part of the ride was quite an effort. 1km into the ride I realized just how tired my body was. Heading into village terrain for a 3-hour bike ride was just plain stupid I thought, but I was already there and it would be even dumber to bail after showing up! It was a real challenge trying to keep my eyes open and my brain awake, but I kept pedaling on Clement’s advice. He said that the beginning is always harder but that once I get the momentum going it will be fine.
10km into the ride at Kg. Kipouvo
I guess he was right because after a while the adrenaline took over, so I began to enjoy the scenery and forgot about the tiredness being an obstacle. Climbing the hills were by far the hardest part of the ride. In fact I got off mid-ascend in all the inclines and the boys were very understanding and took breaks after we got over each hill so that we could all catch our breaths.
Kg. Kipouvo sign reads "Maju menarik dan meguntungkan"
After about 12km in, Clement signaled that the only way back was to turn back, so we decided to head back toward Mee Sup Pipin. I have heard about the legendary mee sup, When we got there, unfortunately it was so crowded that the server served our food to another table.
Jackie at Mee Sup Pipin
By the time we realized (45 minutes later), we decided to cancel and left so I never got to try mee sup Pipin. Nevertheless, Mee Sup Pipin is a defining milestone for the ride so Mark and I (the two newbies) decide to pose outside the sign with our bikes for a photo op before cycling another 3-4km back to our cars…
Outside the Mee Sup Pipin sign
There were times during the ride I thought I’d fall asleep on the bike and fall off, but I fought on and am happy to be reminded once again that when you put your mind to it, your body is capable of a whole lot more. We logged 23km that morning over 3 hours. If you are interested to join, check out the Borneo Bicycle Cyclists on Facebook.
