We are all very relieved that the day is finely over. It was an extremely hard day. We had a head wind, it sucked. It was not just a head wind it was all so very hilly.
When we arrived at the town, finely. It took forever to find somewhere to stay for the night and then we had to back track 1km up a hill.
Hard day’s ride into a strong headwind today and our first all day headwind of the trip. On our rest day we were going to do a cruise and snorkel four local Chumphon Islands. However, when we tried to book the trip it had been cancelled because of strong winds. In the photo below you can see waves breaking. It is the first time in our trip that we have seen breaking waves, the water has been dead flat up until yesterday. So we were glad not to be on a boat in those conditions.
It was a hard slog all day, with plenty of hills on top of the headwind. To give an indication on how strong the wind was, we normally go about 50kph down a good hill. Today, going down a wind tunnel hill, we struggled to get over 15kph, which included strenuous pedalling.
I said to the boys that once we have completed 40kms they can choose the lunch stop. At 40.01km they picked the place below. Not their normal choice, but the food was good. However, the food was too spicy for the boys, so they only ate plain noodles, boiled eggs and fresh vegetables – a good healthy lunch.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/865749528/
We did something crazy yesterday.
We hired a car!
Only for the day. It was really strange getting back into a car again after so many weeks cycling. The boys were great for about an hour of driving and then they started bickering. I could feel Allister’s blood pressure going up and I turned into a navigation witch with a ‘b’. It wasn’t all bad but it definitely made me realise how much stress we live with in our lives. Driving on unknown roads with kids in the car is stressful. I am loving the simplicity of our cycling days. Very low stress. My only stress at the moment is wondering how long Patrick can live on cucumber and white rice.
We visited a bunch of places but I have photos of a really tall gold person, a cave with bells and a lookout with 6 monkeys one of them being a silver back.
I know it’s Buddha.
We stayed in a recycled shipping container hotel last night. Very cool. If you ever get to Chumphon you have to stay there. There was also a rev of bikers staying at the hotel. When they realised we were cycling they offered us WD40 for our chain and wished us luck. I got the feeling they thought we were crazy.
Today has been a hard 57km day. We had relentless 20 knot head winds the entire way. We made it, but there was some frayed nerves by the time we reached our accommodation. You can see in the next photo how rough the water is in the gulf of Thailand and how much the coconut palms are being blown.
Dad realized that we were running out of Vegemite and we had to get some more but we couldn’t because we’re in Thailand. We’ve been using Vegemite on 7-Eleven bread. I am hoping that someone will send us some Vegemite.
Reasonably short and easy ride today. We have had very little rain since we have been in Thailand and not at all while riding. It rained quite a bit last night, but cleared this morning. The roads were a little wet and the clouds looked threatening, but other than a few drops we kept dry. The advantage of the overcast conditions is everything stays cool.
Able to keep off highways for the whole ride and the unsealed sections were in good condition. Looking forward to our rest day tomorrow. It’s been six days of cycling, our longest stretch between rest days.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/863320180/
After two longer days the family was feeling like a shorter day. Riding away from the coast meant that it was harder going today, so felt longer than 40km. As soon as you move from the coast there are more hills and it is much hotter. Also, the tracks are more likely to be in worse condition.
The photo below shows the start of a great downhill that is about 2kms. The only problem was that Google Maps thought it was a better way to go and didn’t realise that the through road was through a fishing college. Julie explains in more detail. It is not the first time that Google Maps has thought an education facility was a through road only to lead to a locked gate at the other end.
The river crossings are spectacular in this section of Thailand and a good spot to have a quick break to take in all the scenery.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/862135719/
We reached the east coast of the gulf of Thailand a day or two ago. We stayed in a beach side hotel with a restaurant 200m down the beach. Robert and Allister cycled the tandems along the road while Patrick and I walked along the beach. A gaggle of women saw Patrick and decided that they all wanted ‘selfies’ with him. They only used two English words, cute and selfie. They laughed and carried on like he was Justin Beber.
Thailand has had so much rain that storm water had washed these coconut trees into the sea.
On a very quiet road at about 7 at night we allowed the boys to ride back to our hotel from dinner. As you can see, they thought it was great fun. Robert is only 4cm shorter than me now.
At a drink stop one morning we had a bunch of locals give Patrick a watermelon. He was very happy about the gift until it came time to eat it when he remembered that he doesn’t like watermelon.
Riding along a quiet beach road in the middle of nowhere we came across this kangaroo. Very strange.
Last night we ate pad thai beside the beach. Allister met the cook earlier in the day at the laundry. We would not have known about the beach market if it wasn’t for Allister chatting.
On one of Allister’s ‘short cuts’ we cycled down a large gravel hill, then turned left into the fisheries college. When we reached the far side of the campus we were stopped by this gate which was padlocked. We debated what to do.
We chose number three but while the boys were climbing over the gate, a lovely guy walked over from a small wooden shack and unlocked the gate for us. We could tell by the look on his face that he thought we were crazy. He is not the only one.
Because we are so remote, everything is so clean. The water in this river was blue. I was even tempted to go for a swim.
Best cycling day in awhile. No highways, roads mostly in good condition, almost no traffic, next to the coast and friendly locals.
For one of our morning tea stops the locals were very animated and talking amongst themselves interspersed with laughter. One of the men tried communicating with us by indicating he was eating. We indicated that we were fine, but he kept offering food and drink. He started offering a cigarette, which I turned down, but indicating to the bikes and coughing. So he then offered bananas, a watermelon (Patrick accepted it), yogurt drinks and a large water bottle. By the end we felt we needed to offer something back, so the boys handed out Mighty Beanz, which we have been giving out to children.
Found a great restaurant next to the beach for an early lunch.
For those people with sharp observational skills will notice the back panniers are larger than normal. They contain a watermelon and a loaf of bread picked up along the way.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/861279386/
While we were traveling through Malaysia we saw plenty of wild monkeys but as soon as we crossed the border into Thailand we have not seen any. The boys have come up with two theories.
I am not sure if either of these theories is correct but there is a definite lack of wild monkeys.
While we were on Samui we did ride past a monkey training center. We originally thought that the monkeys were being trained to entertain humans, so we avoided the training centre, but we have since discovered that they are trained to work in the coconut plantations. They are kept by the plantation owner as pets like farm dogs in Australia. They are trained to climb up the coconut palm and drop the ripe coconuts down. We saw one working today. If you look closely at the photo you can see him looking back at me.
Lovely ride today on a coastal road. There were many river crossings today and plenty of prawn farms. The boys won’t eat the prawns in asia because someone told them that they are fed human poo. I am not sure about this either but I did remind the boys that pigs eat any poo they can get (human, their siblings or their own) and the boys are both happy to eat pork, ham and bacon.
Back to riding north again. You don’t realise how much more you enjoy riding north than the other points of the compass until we had a few days not riding north. Most of the trip we have been riding north, but the last few days we rode the other directions. Having the sun behind you rather than in your eyes makes a huge difference. Also, having the shade of the trees coming across the road also makes it much cooler.
Main highlights today were the river crossings. See below for an example.
If you look closely at the photo below you will see a monkey amongst the coconuts. In Thailand they train the monkeys to collect fruit high in the trees for their trainers. Just to the right of the boys is a man holding on to a rope that is attached to the monkey. The boys were fascinated by the monkey collecting coconuts and watched for about 10 minutes. I think the man was happy when we left because I think we were distracting the monkey from its work.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/860233586/
