After yesterday morning's disappointing egg banh mi breakfast, (who puts cold fried egg in a baguette? That's just wrong!) Leanne and I decided to buy bananas and bread so that we could make our own banana banh mi. Leanne went on the hunt for the two essential ingredients, I had tea bags and two cups and set off on a search for hot water. With successful team work we had banana butties and Yorkshire tea for breakfast. Lovely!
After Leanne led our morning yoga stretches, we cycled out of Thanh My following the river. As usual, children wave and shout "hello" as we go by and they laugh and shriek when we respond with "hello" back to them. Even some of the adults' faces light up too, it's a joy to see and makes us feel very welcome.
We passed a couple of water buffalo who were meandering along the roadside, a common sight here that I've become used to after two weeks of cycling through the countryside.
We paused for water after 40 minutes or so at which point Leanne and James joined us. They had lingered in Thanh My for a coffee and being two of the faster riders they knew they would be able to catch up. Thu (our mechanic) was with them too and he found a nearby hose pipe which he used to cool them, and himself down. I'm sure he enjoyed the excuse to soak them!
We caught up with the rest of the group who were taking a water and shade break in a water gully at the side of the road and our lovely DHL drivers were there too. They, along with Mr. Cuong our medical support van driver, are very much a part of our team and are essential to our welfare. They call me 'Leanne Mommy,' or 'Mommy' for short which I find very endearing. They are great guys and always have a smile too. Thank you DHL!
Dennis had a song in his head, 'Mandy' by Barry Manilow, (because Tarky had been singing it to Andy that morning, (substituting Mandy for Andy of course.) We had a group sing song but as none of us knew the words there were a lot of " na, na, na," substitutions for the lyrics. Maybe we were all just a little bit delirious!
We had lovely views of the river for the majority of our ride today and our route took us past a rest stop with a waterfall and most of us took the opportunity to cool off under it. It was a welcome relief from the searing heat. We shared the rest stop with a huge spider and a collection of insect shells that had been shredded by their previous occupier. Ugh!
It was a short mileage day today just 57km, a welcome relief after our strenuous previous few days over the mountains. We had a 4km hill to climb though before reaching our next destination of Kham Duc and the thought of our rest day tomorrow helped me to persevere and power to the top. Perhaps power is the wrong adjective, it was actually more of a plod, but power sounds much better! We had post ride drinks and some food near the lake about 1km away from our accommodation. Before long though a storm rolled in and we had to quickly leave before the heavens opened. We raced into town to beat the storm and just about made it to the hotel before the deluge! Phew!
I feel very lucky to be on this epic ride with such a lovely group of people and especially with my eldest daughter Leanne. She has lived in Vietnam for three years and there is a definite role reversal situation at the moment as she guides me through hectic traffic, orders food for me, helps me to deal with all the zeros on the currency and generally passes on her wisdom about the Vietnamese way of life. She's such a delight, I love her with all my heart and this is a special time that I will treasure forever. I'm also thankful for all the support I've had from home and also from my friends, family and colleagues who have donated their hard earned cash to raise funds for the five charities we are riding for. I've now seen for myself the good work the charities do and I feel honoured to be able to raise money and awareness on their behalf. Tomorrow we ride 104km to Plei Can. Will I make it? Well, if Plei Can, I'm sure I can too.
Jane Gradwell
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| Banana butties and a brew. Yum! |
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We passed a couple of water buffalo who were meandering along the roadside, a common sight here that I've become used to after two weeks of cycling through the countryside.
We paused for water after 40 minutes or so at which point Leanne and James joined us. They had lingered in Thanh My for a coffee and being two of the faster riders they knew they would be able to catch up. Thu (our mechanic) was with them too and he found a nearby hose pipe which he used to cool them, and himself down. I'm sure he enjoyed the excuse to soak them!
We caught up with the rest of the group who were taking a water and shade break in a water gully at the side of the road and our lovely DHL drivers were there too. They, along with Mr. Cuong our medical support van driver, are very much a part of our team and are essential to our welfare. They call me 'Leanne Mommy,' or 'Mommy' for short which I find very endearing. They are great guys and always have a smile too. Thank you DHL!
Dennis had a song in his head, 'Mandy' by Barry Manilow, (because Tarky had been singing it to Andy that morning, (substituting Mandy for Andy of course.) We had a group sing song but as none of us knew the words there were a lot of " na, na, na," substitutions for the lyrics. Maybe we were all just a little bit delirious!
We had lovely views of the river for the majority of our ride today and our route took us past a rest stop with a waterfall and most of us took the opportunity to cool off under it. It was a welcome relief from the searing heat. We shared the rest stop with a huge spider and a collection of insect shells that had been shredded by their previous occupier. Ugh!
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| No, we didn't eat them! |
It was a short mileage day today just 57km, a welcome relief after our strenuous previous few days over the mountains. We had a 4km hill to climb though before reaching our next destination of Kham Duc and the thought of our rest day tomorrow helped me to persevere and power to the top. Perhaps power is the wrong adjective, it was actually more of a plod, but power sounds much better! We had post ride drinks and some food near the lake about 1km away from our accommodation. Before long though a storm rolled in and we had to quickly leave before the heavens opened. We raced into town to beat the storm and just about made it to the hotel before the deluge! Phew!
I feel very lucky to be on this epic ride with such a lovely group of people and especially with my eldest daughter Leanne. She has lived in Vietnam for three years and there is a definite role reversal situation at the moment as she guides me through hectic traffic, orders food for me, helps me to deal with all the zeros on the currency and generally passes on her wisdom about the Vietnamese way of life. She's such a delight, I love her with all my heart and this is a special time that I will treasure forever. I'm also thankful for all the support I've had from home and also from my friends, family and colleagues who have donated their hard earned cash to raise funds for the five charities we are riding for. I've now seen for myself the good work the charities do and I feel honoured to be able to raise money and awareness on their behalf. Tomorrow we ride 104km to Plei Can. Will I make it? Well, if Plei Can, I'm sure I can too.
Jane Gradwell
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