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Published: January 15th 2013
“Steep Incline Ahead”
“What? .... Again?”
The bottom of the hill.
Distance covered so far (since 20 Dec): 1361.73 km
New Year was difficult this year. Mel was upset when she discovered that Andy had fibbed. The 'mushrooms' in her noodle soup at lunchtime weren't mushrooms - it was stomach lining, and Andy knows that he really should have been more honest with her. That evening, Andy was a little upset when Mel decided that too much money had been spent, and our celebratory New Year dinner would be at the accurately named 'Grilled Goat Restaurant', and NOT at the more promisingly named 'Properly Grilled Goat Restaurant' just next door.
Furthermore, New Year was spent doing some of the hardest hills that we have ever had to contend with. A few of the days prior to Luang Prabang was (we thought) about as punchy as cycle touring could get. We were wrong. After Luang Prabang we set off immediately into the longest slog uphill imaginable. However, the NY itself was spent in a village's hot spring pond - a well deserved soak alongside the villagers having their evening scrub!
What else? well - cycling here
Pitstop
The top of the hill (1000m height gain!) collapsing for a well earned rest.
is breathtaking. Whilst our route planning has been brownian motion / pin the tail on the donkey inspired, it turns out we have been quite lucky. We kept on bumping into other cycle tourers who have planned out their route in intricate detail and this appears to exactly coinicide with our random plan.
Amongst the count of fellow tourers, we have been alongside a super Kiwi called Ben (although obviously, being NZ, he calls himself 'Bin'😉 for the last week. We also had a couple of days coinciding with a Danish chap called Peter who included us in his blog (look at links below to see his detailed descriptions of our cycling North of Luang Prabang). We also met a very 'get-up-and-go' Canadian girl called Vanessa (who hadn't done cycle touring before). She had 'heard on the grape vine' that it is really nice to cycle in Laos.....so she bought a bike whilst over here, strapped her suitcase to the back, and set off in a southerly direction. Vanessa - we salute you!
Highlights from this stage are the Limestone Karst formations which have lined the route. This part of the world has spectacular mountain and cliff formations
Luang Prabang to Thakhek
Night stops in : Kiewkachem (high up in mountains!), Ban Won Keen Hot springs (20km north of Kasi), VangVieng (beautiful mountains, odd tourists), Phong Hong (dusty town), Vientianne (Capital City!), Thabok (dusty town), Pakhading, Na Hin (close to amazing Kong Lo Cave), Namthone (dusty town) and Thakek (decaying colonial town on Mekong). in amongst the tropical forest. Very nice to look at whilst sweating it out on a bike!
Key Stats: Distance covered in this stage: 861.36 km
Distance covered so far (since 20 Dec): 1361.73 km
Biggest one-day distance during this stage: 112.24 km
Maximum speed: 73.8 km/hr
Total Hours in saddle (since 20 Dec): 80 hrs 35 mins
Biggest daily cumulative height gain: 2000m
Mechanicals: Sheared Pannier Rack x1 (Mel), Snapped Bike Chain x2 (Andy), Puncture x2 (Andy), Hand Blisters from Sunburn x6 (Mel).
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=311087&v=4L http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=311215&v=3S
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