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!
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