West Sumatera sport

Sport

Trekking

West Sumatra is with all her natural beauty a great place for walking, biking and trekking. You can go on your own with public transport. Busses in all colours and sizes go anywhere all the time, or you can rent a bike or car. If you want to go into the jungle, you better take a guide. They know how to survive there and, not the less important know how to get out again.

From Bukittinggi you can also make a trekking to Siberut Island. It takes 2 days to go there and 2 days back. One day on a boat. Most trekking's are 10 days. You will walk trough the unspoiled jungle of Siberut, pass rivers and swamps and visit many villages. So you have to be in good shape.
The programmes we offer, includes transportation, English speaking guide, local guide, and food during the trek (not on the mainland or the boat), accommodation and Mentawai porters for food supplies.

Wild water rafting

In the Sawahlunto Sijunjung regency wild water rafting and river tours have been extensively researched as this area has several rivers. At this stage the best river is the Kantian River, witch flows from Muarto Sijunjung to Riau. Flowing through panoramic scenery this river includes wild water rapids ranging up to a technical grade IV to V.

Paragliding

Around the lake of Maninjau, from the Top Lawang, there is a possibility for para-gliding down to the lake. The service is quit new, so you better ask around in Maninjau village. The view from the top is spectacular. For people who want to walk down there is a small jungle path, from the entrance of Top Lawang. Half the way is a small jungle hotel, where you can stay a night over.

Bicycle Racing

The first edition of Tour de Singkarak held in 2009. Tour de Singkarak is usually held between the months of May-June. Since the first edition, Tour de Singkarak usually lasts for 7 days. This year, Tour de Singkarak will be held on June 3 to 9, 2013. Along the race route of Tour de Singkarak , participants and spectators can enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains of West Sumatra and the colorful local culture.
One of the stages in Tour de Singkarak is passing through a small and romantic town, called Sawahlunto. Sawahlunto is an old city that filled with many stories from Dutch colonial period. Dutch colonists at that time exploited coal from this city. Old mining relics and buildings from the Dutch colonial era still prevalent.
For this time, I will not elaborate this Tour de Singkarak things, I just wanted to show the Tour de Singkarak atmosphere with the beauty of West Sumatra province as the backdrop. For further information about Tour de Singkarak, please visit www.tourdesingkarak.com

Diving

Off Padang in the canter of the west coast is a group of small islands with a variety of different dive sites with Indian Ocean visibility and a big variety of underwater life. The coral slopes and walls tempt divers with the opportunity to see hammerheads, big turtles, white- and black tip sharks, schools of unicorn fish, and occasionally a pod of dolphins. The reef is fairly damaged in places, but this doesn't always have a direct effect on the quantities of fish, rather it is the variation of species that changes. There is also the attractive hull of the Kapal Wreck, which promises good bottom times from its shallow position. Further off the coast are the larger Mentawai Islands - renowned among surfers, but still relatively unexplored by divers.

Surfing around Siberut

Mentawai is group of islands in West Sumatra. Siberut is the main island. Mentawai has the best surfing location in the world. In 1991 Rip Curl took ten of the best surfers in the world, to research and prove the intensity of that location. They claimed that the Mentawai Islands were one of the best surfing spots in the world beside Hawaii.
The conclusion of the group was that the wave condition, available in Mentawai Islands, was very good for surfing, it has a big, high and long waves, what makes that the surfers don't want to stop. There are many bungalows available for longer stay at the beaches.