Today was chilly, damp, at times drizzly, and overcast the whole time. Our plan was to head south from Mai Chai down the river valley until south of Pu Luong Nature Reserve.
We had a medium day ahead of us – 70-odd km and around 800m vertical – the roads started good, then got poor, then got totally rotten and then miraculously changed to a brand new wide paved highway with little traffic (they are in the process of building a small dam in the valley, so a new road was needed I guess).
The going was good, but I struggled with a cramp/strain/tendonitis in my right knee (just to the left of the knee-cap) – I had something similar to this years ago cycling down the Danube and had to break off, so I was extremely concerned. Spent most of the day cycling mostly with my left leg and took lots of Ibuprofen. Made it through the day OK with various levels of pain during the day – at the end though it was better (but not gone) – I hope tomorrow will be better (we have a lighter day tomorrow). I was glad when the only big hill was behind us at about the 1/3 of the way for the day point.
Along the way, we met Hannes and Katharina – a couple from Austria – who have been traveling by bike across the world for the last 10 months (started in California and cycled west across the US/Canada before Cycling through Europe and Asia (among other places Iran) before arriving in Kathmandu a week or so ago. From there they flew to Hanoi and were on a similar path that we had originally planned through Laos. In two months, they have to be in Bangkok to fly back to Europe after a year of travel. www.away.edes.at to find out more about them
We got to our destination and starting looking for accommodation and landed in a Guest House/hotel that we ran across in some internet blog from European motorcyclists….when there is no other information to find, you take whatever you can get as a point of reference. But the place was not nearly as good as the description the motorcyclists gave…. the rooms we got were OK, but I had a definite feeling that the sheets were not changed from the occupants the night before (there was still dirt from the feet of the previous occupant?). But, for 7€ a night per room, I guess you get what you pay for…. So out with the sleeping bag liner, and stuffing the pillow in a T-shirt to sleep on. We both washed clothes (as the cycle was wet and muddy in places) in the hope that it would be dry by the morning.
Our falling asleep was accompanied by some compressor that went off every 10-15 seconds during the whole night (not to mention the rooster that started crowing at about 4am and went (what felt like continuously) until 8am (when we got up and left).
(70km / 770m)