Photos - Day 28

A River village

Smiling faces

George navigating through the busy traffic

Within touching distance to Ho Chi Minh City - only 45 km to go!

Photos - Day 27

In awe of the mystical mountain

Sam posing for the camera

Callum giving an elephant branded rucksack to a school child on his way to school

Happy to have a school bag like his friends

The mountain we descended from

Photos - Day 26

Ominous clouds ahead......

Not long until the rain hits us.........

One of the many obstacles we faced

Progessing well toward 'Bao Loc' before the mighty climb



The end is in sight - only 202 km to Ho Chi Minh City



Day 26 - 'Lam Ha' to 'Bao Loc'

Stiff legs and tired bodies were the main moans of the day as we assembled around the daily stew of porridge, beautifully prepared by George - a task he will have to complete for the next 3 days, after losing a fatal round of magnetic darts.

The plan we were discussing was to cycle a shorter distance than we had originally intended to a closer settlement called  'Di Linh' - (Callum had said after yesterdays 120 km, he's rather shit in his hands and clap) which was only 60k away.

Spoiler alert... we didn’t end up cycling 60 k and thankfully for Sam and George, neither did Callum...........

The Vietnamese Gods were smiling on us, however, and we made stunningly good (and unexpected) progress down the Ho Chi Minh Highway covering 28k in the first hour - a stretch which was mostly uphill. Thus prompted the inevitable conversation which always seems to pop up on our  ‘shorter’ days:
 ‘Shall we cycle a further 80k, to get to Bao Loc?’ Still obviously half-asleep, we were tricked into this devious trap, and decided to 'go for it' knowing that the extra cycle today would leave us a much easier journey for the final three days.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail- normally such a savage instigator of stiff bums and poor road surfaces, was not up to its usual tricks. However, the improved road surface was not all plain sailing as there were a number of extremely steep hills to contend with but we did have stunning scenery which help us all going. We cycled on, climbing from 750m up to 975m- barely a scratch on the surface of the previous day’s exertions, but hardly a walk in the padi-field!

So caught up with the beauty of the scenery and enjoyable downhill stretches, Callum finally managed to pass wind aloof the bike saddle for the first time (an achievement Sam and George managed barely a couple of kilometres outside of Hanoi all those weeks ago)!

High spirits accompanied our speedy journey into the outskirts of 'Bao Loc' - so did some rather menacing rainclouds. Of course, no days ride is complete without an unexpected, spirit-dampening, 12% incline - and this was exactly what was waiting for us leading us into 'Bao Loc'.

Having waited 3 hours in our hotel room for the power to come back on, we had time to reflect on 2 pretty painful days work, but also how much we are going to appreciate the extra effort- which leaves us with a much lower distance of 202 k to do in 3 days, before we reach Ho Chi Minh City. Can’t wait!

If you have not donated already.... it is not too late!  It certainly keeps us going to see our 'Just Giving' total steadily increasing.

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Photos - Day 25

5 km of this road surface wasn't helpful for our bums!



More navigational trouble......



The start of the climb......what lay ahead of us was beyond our wildest dreams.....steep or what!

Powering up the mountain

Finally at the summit!

Descending from the roof of the world -

Day 25

We awoke with the prospect of 70 km of fairly straightforward riding with one large climb at the end of over 1000 metres. As we assembled in usual dazed fashion by the van in the morning, we attempted to explain to the driver where we wanted to stay. He did not agree with our suggestion as he pointed out that there was no civilization where we had proposed to stay which was a fair point! 

What wasn’t fair enough was the fact that we had to now cycle 120 km....... including another 1200 metre climb. The previously lackadaisical stretching had turned into an intense session. No words were said..... the task that lay ahead of us would surely be our hardest day yet.

It begun.... the first stage of the ride started with undulating hills that had not appeared on our gradient map, which didn't bode well for us as if they hadn’t shown up on the map, the mountains to come must be gargantuan in scale. The hills, however,were enjoyable throwing up spectacular scenery at every turn.

After 20 km or so, we decided to take (in hindsight)  a premature stop and sat in a road-side house, quenching our thirst. To our huge surprise, we saw our driver casually cruise past us without a backwards glance. Believing him to have seen us and our bikes, we thought he was pretending to have not seen us and would be waiting round the corner, so we thought nothing of it.

As we set off again worries grew into fears and fears then turned to reality as 30 km on from our stop, there was still no sign of our driver. He obviously had not seen us at all and was still expecting us to still be ahead of him!

Fast running out of water and food in the scorching 38 degree heat, we started to grow desperate and use our supplies sparingly, mentally preparing to ‘Bear Grylls’ the day through.

To our immense relief, we saw the comforting sight of our yellow DHL van heading towards us - we were saved..... and not a kilometer too soon. The climbing was about to begin.....

Before us lay a climb starting at 300 metres spanning the dizzy heights of 1200 metres, with gradients of well into double figures. As we fought our way up the mountain, our muscles started to rebel and we really felt the affects of the 20 days of cycling we had done so far. Still we battled on. Barely any motorists passed us, as this was even too great a challenge for them. The  one of two that did, drove by in stunned silence or gave us the thumbs up - they must have all thought us to be totally mad! 

We finally reached a plateau where we rested and replenished ourselves. Another climb loomed in the distance, its peaks covered in thick cloud. We climbed again, mist fogging up our glasses making it hard to see. We were running on reserve fuel now. Each turn of the pedal warranted a medal. After what seemed like a lifetime, we were greeted with the sight of the top. A lifeline of a downhill followed taking us into our stop of 'Lam Ha'. We had done it. By far the hardest day of the tour and another day closer to our finishing point of HCMC!!

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Photos - Day 24

Making our way through the mountains

Callum refuelling -  the width of this banana is something else

A typical paddy field

Day 24 - 'Buon Ma Thuot' to 'Lien Son'

Day 24 began with us loosing our driver 5 minutes after setting out from the hotel.......blame was solely placed on Sam who caught the eye of another yellow van and blindly followed it, mistakingly thinking it was our van, for 20 minutes..... an hour later we were reunited with our driver. This mishap added 15 km onto the days ride making it 65 km to 'Lien Son' instead of the 50 km we had planned.

Highlights of the day included watching Callum eat an overly large sized banana and cycling through some stunning paddy fields in the valleys.

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Photos from Day 22 & 23

Bus swerves to avoid a pot hole causing Cal and Sam to crash into some bushes

Vietnamese mopeds make an interesting sight!

The 60 km round trip to visit the elephant village was well worth it - Sam very much enjoying his ride

Day 22 & 23 'Ea Drang' to 'Buon Ma Thuot' - Elephant Village

The milder weather during the last 3 days has been greatly appreciated by the three of us. Today’s ride was to Buon Ma Thuot, where we faced the same undulating terrine, bumpy roads and dangerous driving that we have described in previous blogs.

Callum and Sam experienced a very close shave with a bus, when it swerved at speed onto their side of the road to avoid a pothole..... The aftermath involved the two of them becoming entangled in the roadside shrubbery.

Thankfully no one was badly hurt, but check out the picture Sam snapped before he realised what was coming right at him! Over the trip we’ve been bemused, amused and sometimes shocked by the kinds of things that the standard Vietnamese man feels appropriate to strap onto his moped....  the photo collage we’ve posted includes: Live pigs, chickens, trees, other motorbikes and today we saw a what looked like a mountain of banana’s zooming passed..... closer inspection of the photo reveals that there was a driver there too!

Ahead of schedule by one day, we cycled 60km to an elephant village outside 'Buon Ma Thuot' to ride some elephants and swim in the rapids. A thoroughly enjoyable experience.

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Photos - Day 21

The fog made things really tricky...



A very bumpy ride.......



Strong headwinds through the valleys making cycling tough for us

George surprisingly happy at the prospect of cycling over the mountains in the distance



Sam's alternative approach to 'warm-down' - sharing vodka with our driver



The view from our hotel balcony

Day 21 - 'Pleiku' to 'Ea Drang'

After the previous day’s draining exertions (a monstrous 48k... in mild temperatures...on reasonable road surfaces... I jest; of course), the team awoke with a spring in our step - ready for our 100k+ ride to the small mountain village of 'Ea Drang'.
The first 2 hours were spent fighting for survival along the Ho Chi Minh Highway - with narrow, muddy, potholy roads not really suitable for our pristine bikes - not to mention the thick layer of fog limiting our visibility to less than 10 metres. However, we soon found ourselves on a beautiful 30k stretch of downhill road (potholes and aggressive drivers still very much a constant). Five long hours in the saddle took us through some extremely rural areas, and the vast expanse of surrounding flat land meant we were further exposed to the punishing relentless headwinds.

Nevertheless, we saw a road sign indicating 25k until 'Ea Drang', signifying roughly an hour left to go. Blissfully unaware of the huge mountains up ahead, we pushed on. The climb, though very beautiful, was a harsh 400 metre obstacle- not the ideal way to end a day, with our already tight muscles from the earlier 100k.

We finally arrived in 'Ea Drang', after consuming every protein bar, zero tablet, electrolyte gel and anything else reasonably edible at our disposal - at one point a passing motorcyclist even attempted to push Sam up the mountain from behind... but to no avail.

At present, George and Callum are stretching out and trying to prepare for tomorrow’s journey to ‘Buon Me Thuot’- while Sam was last seen splitting a bottle of vodka with Kran our van driver - we look forward to seeing who’s warm-down method is more effective.....

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Photos from Day 19 - 20

Tweaking our bikes before setting out to 'Plieku'



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Trucks rule the road!



Reminders of the war that affected so  many of the villages we pass through

Days 19 - 20 - 'Kon Tum' to 'Plieku'

After our relaxing rest day in 'Kon Tum' we were ready again to face the next 3 days before our last rest day in 'Boun Ma Thout'.

The rest day comprised of what most rest days do; gorging out on bread, scavenging out somewhere that sells western food and generally being lazy guilt-free people. In the evening a stroke of luck hit us as we were chilling in our hotel's reception, another white man on a bike appeared and checked into our hotel! We were all quite taken aback by this sight. He turned out he was an Irish guy called Brian, and he too was cycling from Hanoi to HCMC and was friends with the same people as us in HCMC! It was quite reassuring for us to learn that he was also finding the cycle ride tough going. He joined us for dinner and after 2 steaks each, we parted ways, hopefully to meet again at the finish - Ho Chi Minh City.

The short 48 km ride the following day was uneventful and we arrived in 'Pleiku' fairly early giving us time to relax before the next 2 days of tough work.

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