Road to Banda Aceh

I arrived a couple of days ago in Banda Aceh. I traveled from Lake Toba to Meulaboh and spent the night there. Supposedly the tsunami had hit the area but I didn't see much damage south of Meulaboh. When I got there though, about half of the city is gone. I spent the night there and started up the road towards Banda Aceh. I took the road that was destroyed by the tsunami. If I had known how bad it was going to be, I might not have tried it. It used to be a 250 Km trip that would take around 4 hours by bike. As soon as I left Meulaboh though, the road ground to a slow pace. All of the bridges were out. The first part of the trip to Calang was mostly fording rivers on my bike and driving down the beach. Occasionally there would be a stretch of asphalt left. Many times I had to cross a river on a coconut tree over the river.

I did finally get to Calang which is the larger city between Meulaboh and Banda Aceh. I almost didn't recognize it at first. Apparently, only 3 small buildings in the whole city were still standing. When I got there there were some tents and temporary shelters set up but there were no buildings that I could see. All up the coast I could see the remains of villages which consisted of some rubble and foundations. Nothing else was standing. Occasionally there would be a tent village and an "H" painted on the road where there was a helecopter landing place. Oddly enough, the only buildings I did ever see standing were the mosques. I guess this is because they built them better.

The road from Calang to Banda Aceh was in some places better and in other places worse that the road from Meulaboh to Calang. There was a major effort to get the road at least passable so many temporary bridges and roads had been built. There has been lots of rain though so in one particular section the road had turned to mudd. I fought my way slowly uphill in knee high mud that clogged my bike and forced me to walk. I carried my 100 pound pack and pushed my bike for a long way and I was still stuck. At one point I was getting so tired and dehydrated that I was almost passing out. I was standing on the road trying to get the energy to push my bike again when a truck came by the other direction and a guy stuck a water bottle out the window for me. That gave me enough water to make it out of the muck. My front wheel was still glued shut from all the mud stuck in it and it took about a half hour to get it all out so I could ride again. I think I was the only one to make it up that road that day. No one else passed me the whole 3 hours I was working my way up and through the mud.

By this time I was very tired and it was getting late in the day. I knew I couldn't make it to Banda Aceh before dark and I couldn't find the way in the dark. Around 5 (shortly before dark), a guy came up behind and asked if I was going to Banda Aceh. I said yes and he said follow me. I did for the next 5 hours. He even helped me get through the military check points. Apparently he is a very popular red cross guy who travels the roads regularly. He was able to show me to my guest house shortly before 10 PM. I was covered in mud and very exhausted after being on a very difficult road for 14 hours. I made it though and have started cleaning up.

My trip was a total of 2200 Miles (3500 Km) and took 12 days (about 7 full days of driving). The scenery was awesome the whole way and I had an incredible trip. Now I'm running around trying to find a job. I also took lots of video of the trip and hope to make a DVD of the trip. I'll let you know when it is done. It will probably take a while.