Day 14: Kham Duc – Dak Glei

Distance: 37.45 miles

Time: 4:51

Average Speed: 7.7 mph

Gia, the host at Guesthouse 21 was back into top gear this morning, making a call before disappearing off on her moped to pick up Banh Mis for breakfast, then, before heading off to the market, she made another call to someone else to bring some ice coffees along. When she came back from the market, she rushed back off on her scooter to pick up breakfast for someone else. Unbelievable energy, she was a great host. She wouldn’t make much of a cycle tour guide though, the hills to come were ‘not too bad’, apparently.

Still riding with Pierre, we set off shortly after half 8. Leaving Kham Duc, at just under 400m, the tarmac soon disappeared, and was replaced by our favourite energy-sapping concrete. We cycled alongside the river as it worked its way higher, but every climb was followed by a rapid bone-shaking descent when we flew as fast as we dared on the rutted, fractured, surface. Gradually, during the morning we managed to push over 500m and it was passed 12 before we conquered 600m after 19 miles of riding.

But, the worst was still to come, as the 10% gradient for 500m sign ahead alluded to, it was a viciously steep introduction to the real beginning of today’s climbing and when the road started to curve steeply uphill subjecting me to the full force of the sun, I took every opportunity to zig-zag across the full width of the road, listening out for trucks as they crawled up behind me before scampering back to the edge of the road and forcing myself straight up the steep, unforgiving surface. Gradually, I made it to 900 metres, 1000 metres, 1100 metres, the final steep ramps as brutal as the first.

At first, it was pleasing to reach a high plateau, but then bewildering to find a small town perched on the summit of the pass, then infuriating to descend steeply down below 900m, on the same rutted surface, and ultimately satisfying to reascend to over 1000m once more, and all day, the most wonderful scenery, the equal to anything Vietnam has had to offer so far.

During the last 5 miles, as the sun dropped lower in the sky, the tarmac returned and we rolled down to the hill town of Dak Glei, a busy little spot, with countless seemingly out of place Electronics shops.

We wandered the Main Street, stopping for some fried chicken and rice, before selecting somewhere else for a coffee and a third place for some beers. I also managed to pick up some sun-tan lotion, a rarity in these parts. I’m hoping not to add to the sunburn I sustained on the beach in Danang.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping for less coaches: whether in preparation for this week’s Tet festival or just a normal occurrence, the roads on this route have been overrun with them for the past couple of days, travelling fast, and, it would appear, not necessarily installed with any brakes.