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Published: February 16th 2014
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I started early at about 6:40 from Surat Thani, because I had another 75 km to go and did not want to drive to much in the midday heat. The first 30 km led me along 401 and 4153, highways with some times up to 8 lanes. At Nong Sai I turned to 4247 which was a brilliant road most of the time – almost new, small enough but not too small. However I already felt my legs getting heavy and was worried that yesterday was still weakening me.
So I intended to make my first break and first food of the day (so far it had only been water, coke and Gatorade) but I did not allow myself to break so soon and wanted to reach 50 km before. I had breakfast (soup) in a small town then, must have been Yan Yao, and made a 30 minutes break. When I continued cycling, I felt much better, I thought I had found my rhythm, but now I am sure that it was the food. Maybe it is a better idea to actually have some breakfast before
starting.
The first hills started to appear and for the first time the heat became an issue. You don’t feel it when you are riding and create some airstream, but slowly up the hill at 33°and with 50 kg extra, makes you pour sweat. I had to wash my nipples under the plasters with fresh water several times and for the first 80 km I drank about 6 liter of water, 1.5 liter of Coke and 2 Gatorades.
Every time I stop and check my navigation, Thai people stop and try to tell me about which way to go. Yesterday I was also offered water, a banana and rice cooked in bamboo.
The road got worse since it was about to be renewed and I had to find my way through red earth and fluid tar. I stopped by at an artificial pond with maybe 300 Thai people around it, many of them fishing. I don’t know if it was a contest or anything else about the why and how, but I made some pics.
When I finally arrived at the “camp site”, I could see nothing. I am sure
it was there, but I did not see it and so I continued, thinking what to do next. In the next bigger town, I made a 7/11 stop and this interesting argument took place between me and me.
“What to do, I think it would be reasonable to find some accommodation here”
“Yess. Noosss. Can go on master. Master feelsses good. No resst”
“Yes I feel good, I have power left, I have time but where is the sense in continuing now?”
“Perhapses have mountainses. Big mountainses. Go now, haves times tomorrow”
“This is stupid. I do not have to prove anything to anybody. I made more than my target, I should get food and a bed now”
“Noo. Musst proves to yourselfses. We can do its, can do, yesss master.”
“I guess you are right. It is only 42 km left to Khao Sok national park. If the way is easy we can do another 20 km”
Well, this decision was wrong, I guess, and it shows that I still have some demons to overcome. It was decided with ignorance and maybe arrogance, but to my excuse
comes some naivety and the fact that I had not done such a thing before.
And so I (we) continued. The road was not so steep, it was a continuous up and down, but never really too steep. I made a break at an old monastery, seeing no one, but getting out of the worst sun, I ate a piece of chicken. After 40 minutes I continued.
At the recommendation of my other me (“We feelses freshes, no stopses”), I also passed the next town and some resorts until there were only 29 km to go to the waypoint of tomorrow. I felt good.
21.9 km – small cramps from time to time, but my legs were still doing their job. I told myself I would stop at the next resort and stop for today. But one was too far off the road, the other too expensive, the next looked to rotten and so on. And in addition to that I started to believe that I could actually do the whole rest of the way. I thought it would be so cool, to do 2 days way in one (“yesses, goods
ideases”).
By then time had become an issue. There were maybe a good 2 hours of daylight left, my average speed was only 11 km/h and I did not know if I had to expect some real climb into the mountains. I could not risk going at night with my tiny front light and with a back light that did not work at all. I know I should have eaten, but I simply did not want to waste daylight. Also I was not really hungry.
16.9 km. My heartbeat was above normal. Even on short drinking breaks, it did not go down anymore. Strange thing. Better stop at the next resort (“No, we makses to endses!! Goses, goses, masters”)
12.3 km – out of water.
10 km – nice reminder from my navigation system and finally a cold coke
5.4 – oh, cheap bungalow (“Nooo! Do nots give it upsess”)
300 m – of course, now it got steep. But I still had power, I felt
Another 2 km after the turn, I started looking for a room and
Dry season?
Strange how different the rubber trees look only 100 km away from Khanom. Seems it is a lot dryer herefinally found a guesthouse/bungalow that was not fully booked. When I waited at the reception I found that something was not right with me at all. I was shaking, my heart was racing, I could not stand and wait, but was moving like a tiger in a cache (“Like ratses, like ratses, not tigers. masters no tigers. master like porkses move like ratses”) and the 10 minutes I had to wait were the worst of the day. So far.
Having the room, the unloading of my bicycle became pure desperation. I almost fell from the stairs of the bungalow and I just dropped everything somewhere in the room. About at this time, I began to realize that not eating the last 10 hours might have been a very wrong decision. I wavered into the shower and then to the restaurant, where I just made another wrong decision about what to drink (“Beerses, beerses, have ele-loc-lec-losestrytes”). Ah yes, I remembered the beer commercials, telling us how isotonic a beer is. I thought one beer and one soup and the world will stop turning around me. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I got my soup and also a big salad, but
I could not sit anymore, I was afraid to fall of the chair. I asked the waiter to bring the food to my room, because I could not carry it and then lay down in my bed. Moving my arm in the air, I finally realized that my blood pressure must have been really low (my arm started to fall asleep almost immeditately)(“Mei-pen-reises”) and of course the one thing you don’t do with too low blood pressure, is drinking alcohol.
It took me about 2 hours to eat the salad and while I was not sweating, my skin all felt very hot, though no sunburn either. I cooled it with water. Well, brother Felix, please comment my state of body, so I know what really happened.
And yes, I was foolish but I am also a little proud. I broke 4 personal records: the farest trip (about a 130km), the longest trip (about 12 hours) , the most height meters (almost 800) and according to my GPS tracker I burned around 7000 Kcal (counting my total weight of about 170kg). I have stretched the limits of my body and it was a good feeling.
What else is a trip like this good for but to experience your limitations? Ah yes - landscape, sight-seeing, Blogging, Food. Forgot :-)
Finally I fell asleep and the next morning I felt well again. I am ok, no worries.
However I had another unpleasant encounter – remember I just threw my clothes on the floor? My sweat-soaked underwear. And next to it my new t-shirt which I wore at dinner. In the morning I just grabbed that shirt, pulled it over and 10 seconds later I thought “wtf – where are these animals coming from? (“antses,many antses”). The ants were all on my underwear (Can someone explain that please?) and many of them on my shirt and I had just put on a shirt with 200 ants on. All over my head, my arms, my legs. (“He he he he. Good tastes antses”)
Right now I am taking a day of rest and wonder if I should continue tomorrow or book a trip to the Khao Sok lake?
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FelixBro
non-member comment
Exhausted
Well brother, Me thinksess...youurr diagnosssisss wass rigghtt. Ni good ideases to eats only antsesss...and ride suchess a long waysessss. Now u did a 2 day trip in 1...just to have to take the 2nd day of ;-) LOL.. Yess massterss uu can go nse.....now dont hear on that voice today ;-) "Relax, dont do it..." to talk in some lyricsssess...