Singapore Cycling - Lingga

Lingga is an island more distant to Singapore and it is situated just south of the equator. You have to make a few ferry transfers to reach it from Singapore. The scenery of the island is dominated by the Lingga Mountain, which has an altitude of 1163 m above sea level. Rick Ross explored the island and most info below comes from him.

Access to lingga

Chuihua writes (2005):
Everyday, there's a boat connection from Jago to Daik. The ferry operators try to match the timings so that those going to and from Daik can catch the ferries to Tg Pinang. So you can actually get to Lingga in a day from Singapore.

Ben Williams writes:
There is a ferry that plies between Jago (Singkep) and Tg. Buton/Bukit Cening (Lingga), which is a six or seven km ride along good sealed and flat roads to Daik. However, we couldn't quite figure out the boat timetable, because we went just on the end Hari Raya and we were given different information from different people. Instead we chartered small fishing boats between the two places. The trip took just under an hour and cost 70,000 from Jago to Tg. Buton and 60,000 on the return journey, for both of us with our bikes (they were the fares quoted and we didn't bargain), which makes it a viable and reliable alternative to the ferry.

Surviving on Lingga

Touring on Lingga

a) The main road in town runs along the river. There's a bridge in town that crosses the river and meets up with a road I will mention momentarily, but cycling out of town along the main road, which will bear left and then right, you will hit a "T" intersection beside the District Office with its two small cannons decorating the front lawn (about 1 km).

b) Turning right, you will cross the river and curve back towards town, meeting the aforementioned bridge, then continue along the east side of the river, and then turn left away from the river for about 3 km.

c) Back at the District Office, the left turn and then an immediate right turn will lead into the island. About 2 km down this road, you will hit an intersection where you can go straight or turn right (let me call this intersection "A"). Follow the main road right (I'll describe the straight course later). About 5 km later, the hills begin, where you will hit a three way intersection with a monument in the center. Bearing left and up the hill, you can continue about 5 more km to the village of Resun. The road ends just beyond the village at a river.

d) Arriving at the monument from Daik again, you can continue east towards Limbung. Unfortunately, I was only able to take this road about 20 km. It got progressively hillier, to the point where I had to turn around, as it had rained earlier and my rear tire was slipping going up the hills (and was even too steep and slippery to cycle back down, so I walked my bicycle down!).
Ben Williams adds: It's worth noting that the ride back is considerably easier than the outward journey. Even though the net climbing is the same, the hills are much less steep travelling west. So riders shouldn't be too discouraged worrying about the return journey. It's still a bitch of a road (hillwise)!

e) Back at the District Office, you can turn left as before, but then not make the immediate right turn. Continuing straight, you go through a residential area for about 1 km. At the "T" intersection, turn right (the left turn curves back around on a poorly paved road to near the District Office). This road will curve to the right for about 3 km, passing a school and eventually joining up with the Daik-Limbung road mentioned earlier (at intersection "A").

Chuihua from Singapore writes:
From Daik, you could cycle to Kado and further down to Mala via a short off road stretch. There's also a mud track through plantations from Daik to Musai, where you can proceed to the road to Limbung or Resum.