Day 60 - The last few days of biking

Back on the road again, on the 4th day of our second biking adventure - this time we were off the main tarmac-ed roads and onto completely red-dirt rocky unmade surfaces, harder to drive, but more fun! :) This day was to start as a travel day - not much exploration planned as we had some distance to cover, and no guarantee the place we were aiming for could provide any accommodation for the night. The sky was brilliant blue, with not a cloud in sight, amazing considering the skies the night before we stood admiring for an hour on a bridge watching the sun fall over the river.

Skies like I'd never seen them in Attapeu.

It was hot hot hot by 9am. Sunscreen applied, we set sail, stopping at a midday point to sit out the hottest part of the day (the heat was just too much), by the river Sekong where we grabbed some shade and zzz's. Was pretty nice - with the river so low we pretty much had our own private stretch of beach.

Our own private river beach where we kipped in the shade
 

Continuing a few hours later we came to a river at a village where we asked directions, we were pointed across the water. Thinking we had to cross we got a local lad to help us load the bikes onto the ferry (two small rafts nailed together with planks), and he towed us across on foot. We continued further through more villages and down some pretty off-road paths that clearly weren't designed for bikes - but what the hell - it was fun! We had to cross another small stream, this one we could drive though (slowly of course), and along some even more dangerous/fun jungle paths. Eventually we came to a river that seemed too wide, fast and deep to simply drive through. Asking a passer by he assured us we were on the right path, but we aired on the side of caution and decided to double back to the last village and take an alternative route we thought we saw... It turned out to be a dead end and so we returned to the river again, covering the same arduous track for the third time, where we made the decision to take the bikes through the river ourselves. It took all three of us steadying one bike at a time, slowly pushing, pulling and lifting it over the river bed of slippery rocks, safely to the other side - to the amusement of more on-looking locals.

Pulling the bikes through the river - this one was a just a small one, so Lukas could afford to take pics :)

Driving on again, the path became increasingly demanding, and after a while we were starting to wonder if we'd taken the correct route as laid out on our hand-drawn map from the hotel we rented the bikes - the most detailed we could find. Soon we were starting to loose the light, and realising it was too late to turn back we had no choice but to press on. Asking for more directions at a village we passed through we knew we had only minutes of light remaining and despite our best efforts found only another river (it was too unsafe to consider crossing in the dark) and several dead ends. Giving up we headed back to the village where we found the hut where some helpful people previously directed us, hoping to find a bed... No one spoke any English, but after a long game of charades we communicated that we were lost and needed to rest. These lovely people found a hut where a wonderful family put us up for the night. They had to send their children to their friends, and we settled in for the night sleeping as the Laos villagers do - in a small wooden hut. They offered us some dinner of rice and fried minnows, that admittedly tasted a little like dirt, but we were more than thankful for it, and afraid of offending their hospitality. The village had extremely limited electricity - basically no lights, leaving the night sky to shine through like I have never seen - the clear day left a cloudless night that with no light pollution allowed an array of stars and the milkyway to be visible, I'd never experienced such clarity - really special.

The hut where we slept


We slept remarkably well, and arose with the rest of the village at 5:30, We looked around briefly before saying our goodbyes and expressing our gratitude by giving our hosts the money it would have otherwise cost us to stay in a hotel, then continued onwards.

Our gracious hosts for the night in the village
 

Following a very long 'conversation' trying to find out where on earth we actually were and which direction we should be travelling, we discovered that we took a wrong turn, and should never have crossed on the ferry at the river some 80km back, and we were only 60km from the town we slept on the first night - Paksong (we were aiming for Pakse, and obviously not pronouncing it correctly when asking directions the whole day we were repeatedly being pointed in the wrong direction). We had to cross the river we decided was too dangerous in the dead of night. To reach our destination we also had to climb the Blolaven Plateau - the mountain we'd spent our 5-day trip driving around, and the path started to become extremely steep (1:2 gradient!), boulder ridden and much harder to drive, to cap it all our tanks were verging on empty, and the new dilemma became how far we could get before one of us simply ran dry...

Four more stream crossings later we reached the top of the plateau, and the terrain opened up into deforested farmland (makes sense being the only flat land for miles), where we saw trackers - that meant there was diesel fuel somewhere, and diesel often means petrol too. A few tens of kilometres more, and a few stops to ask where to find a top-up-point, we finally discovered a small stall selling fuel from bottles and purchased enough to get us where we needed to be. PHEW! We also bought some much needed drinks, and breakfast.

Lady selling fuel and snacks on the outskirts of the village on-top of the plateau
 

Another hour of driving and we reached the town we'd visited 4 days previous, at which point we thought we deserved a beer! Back on familiar ground we explored a waterfall we missed on the 1st day, where we fell asleep for at least 90 mins before grabbing some lunch, and then heading back to Pakse to get some accommodation. We had a few hours left before turning the bikes, and the weather was still great, so one last drive, north this time, before returning the motors, and taking a much needed shower. I also got another hair chop to match the boys.

Our biking adventure took this route - the red line showing where we went, and the green where we were supposed to continue on the 4th day.


Today we were back on the road (bus this time) down south to a place where the river Mekong fans out into an inland delta creating 4000 small islands at the border with Cambodia. Just a few hours on a minibus, and a short ferry crossing to the main island called Don Khong.

A satellite view of this region of Laos - the Mekong river fans out to create thousands of small islands


While here we intend to rent bikes (push bikes this time) and explore this the largest of the islands, and perhaps do a boat tour to see the rest - hopefully gonna see some Dolphins that inhabit these waters too. Here we hope to spend our last few days in Laos, before crossing into Cambodia, and starting a whole new adventure... More to come soon :)

More amazing pics from Lukas.