We left Lake Toba on a ferry boat with the loudest horn known to man. Rather than head back to the other side of the island we stayed on, and ride across the bridge to get back to the mainland, we opted for the faster, and probably also cheaper route…3 people and two big bikes on the relatively empty ferry cost less than $3…not too bad.

Shortly after getting off the ferry, we had another bird casualty…one flew directly in front of me and straight into my knee. I thought that was the end of it, but a little while later when stopping for gas, I noticed that he was stuck in my luggage rack…sorry, dude.

I’d say one of the highlights of Sumatra has been the constant stunning views that we’ve had nearly the entire time we’ve been riding.

 

Some of the villages in this area are sporting these spacey looking little sidecars on little scooters that they use as taxis. If it weren’t for the ancient looking Vespa powering the rig, it’d look pretty Jeston’s-like.

Passed a fairly recent mudslide that luckily had been cleared from the road

The best bit of the day that we left Lake Toba was definitely crossing the equator. I’ve never been in the Southern Hemisphere, and it felt pretty cool to get there for the first time on a bike.

At the end of our very long day, we reach or destination…Bukittinggi.
Just at the edge of the town is Ngarai Sianok (Sianok Canyon).

 

We spent a day riding out to Maninjau Lake, and Harau Valley.

We stopped for some food in Harau Valley, and these 5 kids were playing an endless game of race-across-the-street-and-jump-into-the-pool
 
The daughter of the restaurant’s owner followed us around, taking every chance she could to pose for photos
 
Her sister was a bit more shy

Unfortunately it started raining pretty hard in Harau Valley, so we weren’t able to stay too long…but we still saw a bit while we were there