Edinburgh – Penzance

~ 600 miles

13.5 hours

My plan was to take my bike down to Penzance on the train, thinking that would be the most relaxing way to travel; I was wrong. It all started at 5PM yesterday when the Trainline emailed me to say that my very rare direct Cross Country train from Edinburgh to Penzance with associated bike reservation had been cancelled. The rail network help desk clarified that the 9:08 am train was actually running, but instead of arriving in Penzance at 20:53, it would only be going as far as Bristol Parkway due to ongoing rail works. I could get as far as Bristol, but after that I would have to hope for the best, no cycle reservation spaces were available and only one unreserved bike was allowed per train.

I considered cancelling the booking, and looked longingly at the heavily populated timetables of the East and West coast lines, ruing my decision to opt for the Cross Country route, one that was infrequent, slow and now partially cancelled. But, as is usually the case in situations like this, I decided to embrace the uncertainty and see what happened!

The tone for the day was set when I arrived at Waverley and tried to deposit my bike at the guard van. There was already one bike onboard and another 4 waiting to get on, 3 bike spaces did not seem enough, but at least I had a reservation for this section…

The first few hours passed pleasantly enough, then as we passed through Newcastle and Durham the train filled up and it was a strange sensation to be crammed in with an ever changing cast of maskless strangers. Plenty departed in York but the train soon filled again on the approach to Birmingham, so I was relieved when an emptier train made the final few stops to Bristol Parkway. The fewer people around to board the 17:25 train to Plymouth, the less chance of competition for that one unreserved bike space.

When the 17:25 train arrived, things appeared to be looking up when I found a carriage with three empty bike spaces and jumped on board. Relieved that the train was quieter than I’d imagined, my thoughts now turned to my connection from Plymouth to Penzance on what would be a different network entirely. I would be getting a Great Western Railways train, but I didn’t know at what time, and their website stated that bike reservations were essential.

Leaving Bristol Parkway, the conductor was initially optimistic that our train could arrive in Plymouth before the London – Penzance connection, but that optimism soon faded as we were delayed over and over again. If we missed the connection, I was concerned it’d be too late to check into my accommodation, the last check in time was 10 o’clock, 20 past 11 might be stretching it a bit.

Then, the conductor came excitedly through the carriage again, the Penzance train had been delayed and was now directly behind us, if we jumped out at Tiverton Parkway station, the other train would stop right after us and pick us up. There was no guarantee I’d get my bike on the train and the station was little more than a halt, but it was a risk I was willing to take. This time the bike compartment was carriage C and again I was relieved to find a space. I quickly messaged the network’s Twitter account and requested a cycle reservation for the rest of journey, I’d come so far, I didn’t want to fall at the final hurdle. Then I contacted my hotel to tell them I’d only be a little bit late…

Eventually, the train pulled into the station at half past 10, 13 and a half hours after I’d left Edinburgh, it wasn’t far around the harbour to my hotel, so thankfully I just made last orders. Train travel with a bike is stressful, think I’ll stick to a plane next time!

Day 20: Gia Nghia – Dong Xoai

Distance: 76.45 miles

Time: 6:33

Average Speed: 11.7 mph

Looking back at a cycling blog I read before I came here, I was reminded of a comment made about the section of the ride from Saigon to south of Kon Tum. ‘A lot of the riding up until this point has been hard in a not fun, feels like punishment way.’ I didn’t know exactly what he meant at the time, but I do now.

I climbed back up to the main road, before stopping for some noodles and unidentifiable meat. Setting off along the highway, at half past 9, the road plummetted before instantly climbing a 10% gradient back up again. Over and over the pattern repeated, the steepest route down the hill, the steepest route back up again, no skirting around, no plateaus, no valleys. I imagined photographs of the Great Wall of China with the wall replaced by a road.

But then, as I climbed back up to 750 metres, I zoomed out the map on my Garmin, and saw the relief map of the area’s topography for the first time, and it looked like I was about to reach the end of the mountainous terrain.

The road descended in installments, with plenty of sharp little climbs thrown in for good measure, then, gradually some flatter sections were introduced and when the sun went behind a cloud, taking the edge off the 33 degree heat, I started to make some headway.

I stopped for a Banh Mi and Nuoc Mia (sugar cane juice), before stopping at a large service station canteen for a coffee, Vietnam-style, served with condensed milk and heaps of ice.

While pedalling along, a couple of snarling dogs emerged at the roadside in a flash, they were too close to outpace, so I employed my other tactic, slow to a virtual standstill and wait for them to lose interest. Further along the road, another dog chased alongside me at full speed. As its pace waned, a teammate was primed to take over the race, and when its pace waned I made my escape, relieved that these dogs seemed more interested in sport than dinner.

As the road dropped to under 200 metres for the first time in over a week, I became even more determined to get finished for the day. As I rolled into Dong Xoai, after another 76+ mile day, a man on a moped came alongside, he persisted in talking to me in Vietnamese, every time I motioned to him that I didn’t understand, I seemed to be answering whatever he’d asked.

At first, Dong Xoai did not seem like the place to be. The first hotel I made for was closed. Then I booked the only place available on Expedia, and got there to find it was also closed. Fortunately, it was third time lucky, and not only was BomBo open, but it was also a half-reasonable hotel, and just across the road was a huge New Year’s celebration.

Did I mention, I’m only 60 miles from Saigon…

Day 19: Buon Ma Thuot – Gia Nghia

Distance: 77.1 miles

Time: 6:44

Average Speed: 11.4 mph

Happy New Year from Vietnam!

Well the day has arrived. Tet, the Lunar New Year, Vietnamese New Year, whatever you’d like to call it. I do vaguely remember reading something about the ‘Tet Festival’ before I came here, but I didn’t really see how a festival would have any significance to me. It was the Yorkshire cyclist I spoke to in Phong Nha that suggested it was something to worry about, and he’d already booked his accommodation to sit it out for a few days. Obviously, that’s not my style, so I went down a different route: get to big city the night before, stay in fancy hotel, eat lots of food; cycle long way to next big town, and hope that some entrepreneuring local decided a national holiday wasn’t a good enough excuse to stop making money. It was my plan and I was sticking to it.

My hope that – much like Christmas back home – the roads would be deserted, seemed like a furlorn hope whilst I watched from my hotel room last night, as the mopeds departed, en masse, from the Buon Ma Thuot fireworks.

Setting off, the roads were busy, and there was an energy in the air. People wished me Happy New Year as I pedalled along, there were no trucks, just family-full after family-full of mopeds, with a new record high of 5 people.

The first 10 miles were a breeze as a gradual descent was only improved by a pleasant tailwind. By the time I’d been cycling for an hour I’d racked up almost 15 miles. But the tailwind didn’t last, and either did the descent.

Once again, just as I was starting to believe it was all downhill to Saigon, the road started to climb, the hills were rolling, and every time the road started downwards, I could already see it was climbing higher again ahead. From a low of 300 metres, the road climbed to 750 metres by lunchtime, when I reached the attractive lakeside town of Dak Mill. I stopped for some kebab skewers from a food stall by the lake, it was a relief to get some shade from the midday sun.

After lunch, the road kept climbing, little by little. 800 metres, 850, as it inched towards 900 metres I was certain this was the high point of the route, but after a short downhill, the road was climbing again, back to 900m, then down to 880m, then back up again, finally topping out at 950 metres, luckily the views were almost worth the effort.

Even as the road started to fall, there were regular re-ascents as the road weaved its way along the landscape. These Highlands had been true to their name, the road seemed to pick out the highest line available at all times, not necessarily optimal for cycling.

Passing through the empty streets of one hilltop town, a girl on a moped lost control on gravel on the other side of the road, to make matters worse she was carrying a small child. She seemed to be ok, luckily it wasn’t a big fall.

So, much as the roads seem safer than they probably should, the incident count on my journey so far is: bicycle with buckled wheel in Hanoi, two moped riders who crashed on an otherwise empty road in Phong Nha, moped rider who’d gone into the ditch near Dong Hoi, two mopeds that had crashed and had chalk marks around them – like it was a crime scene, and now this one.

After 77 miles and over 5000 feet of climbing, the road finally dropped as I entered Gia Nghia. Arriving at my hotel, everything around looked shut, but I took a wander and found a woman washing dishes in front of her restaurant. She made me a very tasty bowl of noodles with Tofu, but I was wondering what I should have ordered when the lady and her family sat down to a large pile of savoury pancakes.