This day was the longest and most tiring day of all so far. I had decided to stick to the back parts of the Ho Chi Minh Highway to give myself as much of a feel for it as possible. At Phoung Nha the "highway" splits into 2 with one arm bearing right and heading more east towards the coast and Dong Hai. The run down this one ends up with you on the coast mixed up with highway 1 which is to be avoided at all costs. As it was my decision turned out to be one of my better ones as I ended up travelling on a road that actually was part of the original trail.... you could feel it.
To do this run you need a bit of extra preparation. There are no gas stations, there are not even any of those roadside stalls with Coke bottles full of what is purported to be fuel.. there are no towns, there is no food there is just the most intense rainforest/jungle for most of the way. You can almost feel the ghosts of jets overhead looking for a juicy target. I was the only one there! I passed no trucks although I missed one by a hairs breath going the other way. How I missed hitting the side of this thing I'll never know. I threw the bike sideways and it twisted like a snake, the load on the back adding momentum and I was safe. I have now stopped having palpitations when these things happen. It has become a daily occurance so one gets used to the sudden panic followed by the large phew. You get yourself set in the seat again and look out for the next corner.
From Phoung Nha to Khe Sanh (pronounced Ke Sang) is 230 Km. It begins with about 30-40 Km of the National park. Primary rainforest mainly, very mountainous. Limestone karsts covered in forest/jungle. It's wierd, I know it is rainforest but to refer to it so does not do it the justice it deserves. It is definitely more jungle than that. Forest implies trees, here there is another layer of complexity with vines and grasses and suchlike that raises the bar in some way. The effect is breathtaking. The road winds through the valleys like a snake. You follow this tunnel of green switching between following the road to glancing at the sides for glimpses of that wonderful jungle. Whenever I stopped the silence was broken by bird calls and insects. Not loud but just subtely there. After valley hopping for some time I came to my first climb. Half an hour later and countless hairpins I was at the top of the pass. The views were spectacular. The drop to the valley floor was to say the least precipitous. A green carpet all the way to the bottom interspersed with the ribbon of the road that I had just come up. The way down the hill was as slow as the way up because you just can't trust each hairpin. The road is made of concrete slabs and the verge a bitumen path that is covered in fine dust/gravel. This is the emergency bail out route. So if something is coming in the opposite direction then you dive for the side and hope that you don't loose traction. Unfortunately this gravel makes its way onto the concrete slab on the corners so each one is a skating rink that needs to be treated with respect. I made my way snail like down every hill and around every corner. I guess my average speed for the whole. trip was about 30km/hour! The trip took 8.5 hours (8am to 4:30pm). The last 3 hours the topography changed a lot. No more Karsts, more like rolling hills. Quite a bit of agriculture and a lot more people about. Still there were the huge passes to deal with but that is part of the story. Khe Sanh itself seems to lie on what is a sort of plateau. It is sort of flat or mildly undulating. I started hitting houses about 5km out of town which would have to be bigger than Lismore, more of the size of Tamworth. It is about 20-30 km from the Lao border so it is definitely a border town with all the attributes. Tomorrow I will visit the "museum" out on what used to be the base and then it is back to the Ho Chi Minh highway and off to the Ashau valley and the turn off to Hue. I have my accommodation booked already thanks to the wonderful world of the internet and secure wifi. Stayed tuned campers.
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