Pass – Simply cycling around

Nong Khiaw > Sam Soun Mountain Area (75km)

Today I have done two passes again. There is not much choice if I want to keep doing a minimum of 70km per day. I have also met 3 cyclists from United Kingdom during the first morning ascension. Once at the top, I was welcome by those 4 children who waited for me to take pictures of them. Then I continued downhill until I reached the river and a village where I had my lunch break. Finally I started the second climb of the day, reached the summit and then got caught by the night and a double storm. I really thought I would finish the night fully wet but fortunately my camp site resisted. Lucky me!

Ban Suk Ruthai > Tha Khao Plueak (64km)

I know it, today I’m going to push my bike. Last night was quite comfortable, I had a good sleep and I’m now ready to cross that pass. Once done, the rest of the day should be quite easy. Late this afternoon I stopped in a small town and slept in a market place.

Tambon Mae Pang > Si Dong Yen (61km)

This time I found what I was expecting being a proper and real road in northern Thailand. On this picture, I’ve push my bike from bottom to top. In that case I prefer to save the belt of my bicycle than pushing so hard on the pedals and shorten its life just to say “I’ve done this”. I had to tackle several steep hills today and walked many times too but the landscapes were different than what I’ve seen until now in Thailand. I have no regret suffering a bit to enjoy more.

Wongyarra > Port Augusta (88km, 4h10)

Today, I want to reach Port Augusta and go to a Telstra shop to get a new SIM card. That way I will have more coverage along the way. (ps: I will have a new phone number too because it’s faster and easier doing this that way). Then, I will have to go shopping to get a week of food and plenty of water. I’m not worried about this next step. I just don’t want to spend too much money along the way because the food is going to be more expensive for sure! This is a cloudy day again and this morning was freezing! But the hot coffee helped!