Up Hill and Down Dale

Liddy

OH. MY. GIDDY. AUNT.

How much more than we can chew have we bitten off ???!!!!!!
We are now in the mountains of Northern Laos and have spent the last week or so on some absolutely spectacular roads in the mountains, plumbing levels of exhaustion that I didn't realise feasible. Yesterday's extravaganza saw us riding 90km, yes 90km, not a typo, with two epic hills on seriously rubbish roads. The last 15km (by which time we thought surely we must be only minutes away), took nearly two hours and were my definition of purgatory.......bend after bend after bend, hill after hill after hill, pot hole after pot hole after pot hole on an endless, bumpy, gravel road. We were seriously knackered when we arrived. Actually, scratch that, Mike and I were seriously knackered when we arrived; Sam had been complaining about being mildly tired but as soon as we arrived him and Meg started doing laps up and down the hotel corridor. Where oh where do they find the energy?? We all went to bed at about eight thirty, and slept twelve hours straight.

It is, however, truly truly beautiful and, with the exception of late yesterday afternoon when I never wanted to see my bike again, we are loving pretty much every minute. We are passing through very remote hilltribe villages where we are creating quite a stir - not Mike and I, but the kids, and if we stop, the whole village collect to inspect them both with frank amazement. People are generally very respectful though, and Meg is greatly relieved that there has been very little arm pinching and only a little surreptitious hair stroking.

Some of the roads are in tip top condition - slightly strange as there is next to no traffic - but as above, some parts are shocking. We passed 18km from China and the influence is clear - there are lots of Chinese people around (I've been practising my Chinese) and they are responsible for building all the roads in the area, presumably in the hope that the trade links will follow.

Strangely, there are quite a lot of cyclists - each day we see at least one or two other people on bikes and there is a nice sense of camaraderie on the road. Though I could have throttled the Spanish guy the other day who passed me as I panted (walking) up a road pushing Ten Ton Tessa, thinking that surely I was nearing the top. He stopped to commiserate and said I was nearly there, only another 1-2 kilometers. Aaarrrggghhh! Mike has been being very chivalrous and on many occasions when we've been pushing, he has trotted up the hill and then come back for my bike. I think it comes down to brute strength. Or perhaps he is just fitter than me.

We are now in a place called Oudomxai and have decided to have a break from cycling for a couple of days, so we have booked a two day trip off to a huge cave in the countryside, with a homestay.