Gentle Headwind – Simply cycling around

Chaiyaphum > Ban Nong Bua Khok (50km)

Today, I’ve been travelling from a good spot to another very good one! Lucky me :-) I stopped as usual at the PTT petrol station and worked on my website. Mainly that’s all I’ve done today, nothing fancy, just efficiency: Early cool ride, arrived at the petrol station, had a shower and washed my clothes, worked at the café, went out for lunch, came back at the café until 5pm, enjoyed evening ride and wonderful sky, found a great spot for the night, cooked some noodles, had a “one litre shower” and slept deeply. And especially, no dogs bothered me! Perfect!

Ban Nong Phai > Chaiyaphum (49km)

As planned, I cycled this morning towards the next checkpoint. Until now I used to travel from remote place to remote place and stop during the day in Café but now I’ve broken that pace. That’s why this morning I cycled directly all the way to the next stop so later this afternoon I will be able to sleep between petrol station again. Except that, that next petrol station had a very nice spot again. At the back of the area, behind the buildings, next to a lake, out of the noise and close to the toilets, there was a very clean shelter with benches. How to resist? I didn’t :-)

Ban Non Sawan > Ban Hua Fai (20km)

I’m not really in hurry these day: today is one of my slow record. Another easy day with no particular events. Last night was a lot more quiet compared to the Chinese temple so I could recover a bit. Once all packed, I cycled to the next PTT petrol station, stopped for the day until 5 or 6 when I came back on riding during late afternoon. I ended up in a half finished or half broken building with a remaining roof, the only thing I’m really looking for. I cooked dinner, browsed a little the news on my phone and slept. Simple!

Ban Kham Pia > Khon Kaen, Chinese Public Park (31km)

Ow! How to start a day with an colourful sunrise! When I opened the eyes first I had blink few times to be able to see better and believe what was happening. Quickly I jumped out of my bed, picked up the camera and enjoyed that crazy sunset! The lake amplified a lot the effect!

Road 415 > Surat Thani (107km)

Normally, we would have been cycling to Ratchapraha lake together which is apparently a very nice place but I’m not in the mood to visit anything today. The only thing I’m thinking about right now is how I’m going to fix this hammock. If I cannot I will try myself. If that doesn’t work, I will be very sad and depressed. The weather is not very good today. That’s good because I can keep cycling between 11am and 4pm and reach Surat Thani today. Surat Thani is a bigger city so I hope I will find a tailor that is able to repair this specific material.

Marine National Park > road 415 (75km)

Not very much happened today. We cycled for 90% of the time on the same road as we did few days ago when we came to Phuket. That’s only during the last 10 kilometres that we got on a different road. Mostly we cycled against the wind. It was not so strong but annoying enough. Around 6pm we looked for a temple where to sleep. The only one we’ve found seemed to be a school. We did not see anybody to speak to so we carried on.

Dunmarra campsite > Maryfield area (80km, 3h50)

After two and a half days doing nothing I’m back on the saddle! I still have 3 weeks to go until I fly from Darwin to Bali so I will surely stop in different other places like Mataranka, Katherine, Edith Falls and I don’t know yet. I wish I had more food with me because life is expensive around here. And every road house sell nearly the same stuff like: ice creams, beers, soft drinks, Chips, and spare pieces. How can I get food for my breakfast with that?! Anyway, I’ll make it!