Mentally and physically challenging were themes for today with and an added heaping of patience! We set out down the road for the last 40km of journey, each in our own little bubble....Cars, buses, motos, bicycles and dogs filled the day. For Jeff, each step became more difficult to the point that walking as quickly as he could manage would mean it would take at least 10 hours to complete the day. Nathalie offered time and again to walk through the night but it was time. Ten kilometers into the day, Jeff traded his shoes for a block of ice and retired to the truck..... The next 10km were Nathalie hammering down the road in the heat and sun. iPod on and mind numbingly loud, focused only on the task ahead. Get as far down the ... read more

The interesting thing about going off the beaten path in Cambodia is the lack of map or GPS routings. So when charting a route the formula for calculating the margin of error on distances one might expect to cover you better place your bets further along the chaos theory than probabilities theorems. We decided to re-route part of our path to avoid the extreme dust we were encountering and asking around the village, looking at our map and trying to figure out distances between set points on the GPS we guessed that reaching Phnom Penh would take anywhere between 38 and 60 km. We set-out, determined to do whatever it is we needed to do mileage wise that day until we reached PP. In the end it ended up being 40kms. Run began and Jeff knew ... read more

OMG! So the Mexican Jail is one thing but seriously! Had we been told about switching off the outside light, we would not have been faced with the mass of bugdom that presented itself the very instant we exited our little bug free zone. The pictures cannot show the millions of little critters! Thankfully, they don't bite! Leaving bugfest and dragging all our gear outside to knock the critters off, we say hello to BBQ, who has been silently hoping for the dawn and the exodus of the bugs just like us! Our stuff all staged outside, Bunna greats the day brushing bugs off his clothing as well! Laughs and shrugs about how many there were, it felt like sand under your feet, he wanders over to say hello to his bird....in an instant, none of ... read more

We left the relative comfort of the Chhlong guest house at our usual shortly before or at sun break point and our travels today took us through our first real exposure of muslim Cambodia. The differences were subtle but firmly entrenched and it was an interesting contrast to the Khmer villages that has punctuated our travels so far, one noteworthy difference being the relative absence of the family dog pack. The lack of hello's was also eerily felt. The agriculture also changed along the way and a new harvest, tobacco, was now stretching itself across the landscape and mats upon mat of drying fish, sesame seed and green peppercorn. Along the way the kids have always been keen to engage with us. Today was no different. In a particularly difficult time in the day, the kids ... read more

We were very much looking forward to a full day on the riverside roads. While they too have their challenges (read dogs, lots of them, as it seems the average house has at least 4 and that does not include this year's puppies, all bark, lots of chase and even a couple who if given a couple more seconds might even attempt a little bite at minimum). What these roads lack are large speeding trucks and buses and a road temperature that is well above the surrounding air temp. So, it's off to the shady river we go.... Honestly, the day progressed and there's not a lot to tell well other than the eternal challenges of finding a place to answer the “we're now managing to be somewhat hydrated” call of nature. The Mekong supports about ... read more