11:23am 12 January 2024
Canterbury to
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12:03pm 14 January 2024
Milton Keynes to
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Train
Today has the worst surface since that prior to Jiangcheng. I've left the new Chinese road behind, it becomes apparent as I roll out of Oudomxai. After about 5km, the road turns left towards Luang Prabang, and the first of two big climbs starts.
MoreOvercast start to the day. I'm still feeling a little full, so I defer food. This turns out to be a good strategy, as my breakfast, taken after 27km in Na Mor, hits my system just as I get stuck into the day's main climb. I reckon I'm just going to rattle into places and speak a few words of Thai, as it seems to be understood. For breakfast, I lead with a kin khao (eat rice), and get a kin pho (eat noodles) suggestion in reply - job's a good un. Got a salad of mint, green beans, watercress and other unidentified greens on the side too.
MoreThe weather's cold, the sky overcast, the locals are wearing coats. I have to put my fleece on until I've warmed up. I stop a few times on the way out of town to make certain of the route. It starts spitting rain. Not rain. It's like the jungle and sky are sweating, water drops forming around me rather than falling from above.
MoreQuite a ride today. I've had a heads up to expect three biggish climbs. When I cross a little blip of a climb early on, I'm uncertain whether it counts. I'm right to assume it doesn't.
MoreMarc and I head to Banna Café for some breakfast. While it's being prepared, we pop to the bike shop around the corner on Manting Lu to check out a handlebar bag. Having some weight on the bars the last few riding days has made the ride feel a bit more treacley and less twitchy. The bag seems to do the job. Breakfast does the job too.
MoreWe aim to get on the road early today, the plan being to get to Mekong Café in Jinghong in time for a late lunch. We roll out at 9:40am after throwing down some baozi, zhengjiao and doujiang.
MoreThis is the closest we've had yet to an easy day's riding. The departure from Pu'er is straightforward. We stop for baozi and doujiang, our now established breakfast standard, then get onto the road out of town. It's a little broken and shabby at first but soon settles down to be a very useable country road.
MoreToday is much the same as yesterday - same road, same rolling hills. Tea trees on the higher ground, bananas lower down. We're let off a little by the terrain, with small ups and downs alongside a river before heading into a 10km climb that rapidly became challenging. We keep thinking we're done going uphill, but there's always more.
MoreWe'd heard in Kunming that the stretch of road after Daheishan was unsurfaced and uphill. Asking in Daheishan confirmed this. We decided to hop a bus to Jiangcheng, the regional centre, after which the road was said to improve. We located the bus station Monday evening, and were told to show up early to ensure there was space on the bus for our bikes. At about 8am, we rocked up, to be in good time for the 9:10am bus. A flurry of phone calls later, and we're told the 8am bus is waiting for us up on the main road. Back up the hill, the driver helps us put bikes and bags inside the bus - a bonus, as this is much better for the bikes than the roof rack. We head off for the 60km or so to Jiangcheng, and immediately the road turns to moonscape. Mud, rocks, dust, landslides. We cross a sinuous reservoir. There's some sections of sealed road, but around half the trip is on smash.
MoreWe've got just under 100km on the slate for today, and after the climbing efforts of the last couple of days, we're silently hoping for some kind of reprieve. Luchun's a classic linear settlement, strung out along a mountain ridge along which the road runs. We trundle out to the west, stopping to wolf down a couple of longs of baozi and a bowl each of doujiang.
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