There are two basic types of bridges in this part of Indonesia; the stick bridge and the plank bridge. The stick bridge, being very true to its name, is constructed by placing a long stick or branch across the space you want to traverse. Let me be clear that I’m not talking about a huge branch from an Oak tree. I’m talking about a branch from a sapling, something that is about 3 inches in diameter, with knobs and bends. I had already proven that I had difficulty simply walking over this type of bridge and now I was expected to carry a bike over it. Thankfully, stick bridges were used to span fairly small gaps, something several feet wide for instance, so in most cases I would simply hike my bike up onto my shoulder and leap over the space.
The plank bridges were used to span wider distances and consisted of two planks laid across the gap at the opposite ends, planks laid crosswise over those two planks to cover the gap, and then two more planks laid atop the original two. So in this case there was a fairly large structure which someone could walk or ride a bike over. However, the danger with plank bridges is that most of the planks have long since rotted away. The middle was almost always gone and only the four planks laid across the bridge still stood. So as we came upon a bridge during our ride, we would have to quickly assess the state of the bridge and make sure that we pedaled over the right part.
I can honestly say that I did fairly well on this ride, until the very last bridge. Somehow, my bike ended up on the bridge and I ended up in the ditch. The sad part is that I wasn't even riding at the time. I had gotten off to walk my bike across. That was when I started to suspect that my bike was, in fact, trying to kill me.
(sorry for the lack of a picture but I don't have a scanner and taking a picture of a picture with my phone and then emailing it to myself didn't work out so well)
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