Mount Faber on a Rainy Day

Bro’s alarms (watch, mobile phone, etc…) are always set to 0530hrs daily since he’s serving in the army and Sunday morning was no exception. I woke up only to realize it was not my alarm. Mine sounded about 15min later.

I guess the whole family was awakened. Dad inherited Bro’s old phone yesterday and to his dismay, found the 0530hrs alarm working perfectly this morning although the phone was switched off. Dad was reluctant to cycle so early in the morning – that was his stand last night and I was all prepared for another solo ride – but as I had breakfast, I found him getting ready to join me for the ride.

The weather was amazingly cool this morning when we left home at around 6.15am. We soon found out why. Flashes of lightning streaked across the dark skies and it was only a matter of time before it started pouring.

Our “wish” was fulfilled as we near Bukit Panjang (10 Mile Junction). The rain got steadier heavier and we were totally soaked. We proceeded down Clementi Road and the rain stopped briefly when we hit the West Coast Highway but the weather was simply not merciful today and we found ourselves battling strong gusts amidst the rain.

The cool weather meant less physical exertion and Dad managed to climb Mount Faber on his Ventura Elite today, which was great. I am guessing the height of his saddle had a part to play too.

       

The summit was totally void of visitors, less a maintenance worker. I guess most people shy away from the rain as well as the “slippery” road conditions. We took the curves down with more caution, but obviously I was way faster than Dad in wet conditions. Dad voiced the riskiness of a descend in such weather – true, but we need to adapt to cycling in different weather conditions as we can’t expect mountain roads to be always dry. In fact, Genting is usually wet and we were just lucky on our previous trip.

I was freezing cold, in fact shivering, when we descended from Mount Faber. I think the last time I experienced such cold was during the descend down Genting! Back on the roads, I couldn’t help but increase my speed to get the cold out of my system.

We had our second breakfast at the Tiong Bahru Market. I can’t wait to visit the hawker centre again to taste more hawker fare. It was slightly past 9am when we started our return journey via Chinatown, Serangoon and Balestier. It took us about an hour fifteen minutes (of coldness) to get home.

Thus concludes my first post with Windows Live Writer. Out.

Total distance: 66.3km
Money spent: $3.70
Participants: LSH, Dad