Day 7: Bai Duc – Phong Nha

Distance: 66.98 miles

Time: 5:31

Average Speed: 12.1 mph

With all the rain yesterday, I forgot to mention, I got a judgemental look from a man on a moped, with a pig strapped to the back.

After I stood and puzzled over the restaurant menu for a while with my phrase book, I ended up with a breakfast that seemed to be very much like beef and noodle soup. Beef and noodle soup washed down with a couple of shots of something from a group of locals.

Packing took an eternity and most of one pannier was filled with sodden clothes as a result of yesterday’s deluge. I finally set off, at some point after 10, yesterday’s tailwind had gone and been replaced by a warmer wind from the south.

Into the headwind, the going was tough and the road was hilly, with several long 8% ramps on the winding 18 mile road to Khe Ve. To slow things down even more, the scenery was fantastic and I kept having to stop to take photos.

It was quarter past 12 by the time I got to Khe Ve and I was disheartened to see a sign saying it was another 82 km to Phong Nha. Feeling weak, I stopped for lunch, at a restaurant beside a service station, having a pork and rice dish.

Afterwards, when I set off, I still had 50 miles to go, and it was already nearly one o’clock. The road was even more spectacular and I was busy taking more pictures when the three English motorcyclists appeared. Their spirits were high after a great morning on the road, and no doubt helped by a day off at a beach resort yesterday, completely avoiding the rain. They were headed to Phong Nha too and would be quicker than me so I pushed on.

Shortly after I left them, a cyclist came alongside me, the American from yesterday, Matthijs, who was actually Dutch! He was bikepacking, with extremely minimal kit, from Hanoi and soon would head west into Laos and then over into Thailand. He’d done the South Vietnam Coast before, and used to be a cycle racer. After pedalling with me for 10 or 15 miles, he said there was a hill coming up as we approached a rise in the road, and he’d take it at his own pace, so he’d ‘see me in Phong Nga!’ It wasn’t the hill, about which I was now concerned, but it was a great boost to cycle with him and my pace had risen too, so hopefully I’d make it to Phong Nha before dark.

When the hill did come along, I knew about it. Over two miles, maximum elevation of 500m, an average gradient of 5.8% with large stretches reaching 10%, 90%+ humidity and the beautiful road surfaces of earlier had disappeared, to be replaced with some form of corrugated concrete slabs, rutted and bumpy. I took it in stages, just to avoid overheating.

The descent wasn’t much better, with brakes on the whole way, and the bike being shaken to bits by the corrugations on the road. The back tyre started to feel a little soft too, but thankfully it got me the last 20 miles to Phong Nha, a spectacularly positioned little backpackers’ haven on the edge of the Phong Nha Khe Bang National Park, arriving just as the sun was setting.

On looking for a hotel, I was recommended one by one of a couple from Yorkshire, who are cycling around Vietnam for 8 weeks. They’d been staying in the same accommodation as me last night but I’d only seen their bikes, and clearly he recognised mine. He did also mention there was an Indian restaurant across the road, now that sounded good…