Riding in the rain

Well the last two days were interesting. I awoke on a wet and drear morning at Cuc Phong National Park. Unsurprising really when you think that I was actually in the middle of a rainforest. I was hoping the rain would go away with the forest. Nope, luck not in there buddy! I had some 40 Km to travel on local roads before I got to the Ho Chi Minh Highway (old trail). The roads were  about as bad as you can imagine. Potholes? They have a Phd in creating the hugest potholes known to roads. In the usual fashion everyone makes thier way through the only path possible leading to very interesting interactions. Always trucks and buses have first right. The other thing here is that you have to go very slow most of the time dodging holes, people, dogs and cattle (that includes water buffalo). This means that it takes a lot of time to go very little distance. The 40 Km took well over an hour of slog, fear and determination. While I here I would just like to mention that the countryside I was riding through was spectacular and getting better. Rural scenes of paddies and canals. 

It is a phenomenon with me that when I go on long motorbike trips there forms around me this mental Tardis. I am aware of everything around me, the road , what is happening ahead and an occasional glance behind. But also my mind goes off on some crazy sorties into all kinds of trips. My imagination has a field day. Riding in the rain exacerbates the effect. In the rain I am enveloped in this blanket of protection. Movement is greatly reduced to cut out the dribble effect (rain has the capacity to wheedle its way to those bits you really wanted to keep dry if you could - like your crutch). I am totally focused on the road ahead acutely aware for all the pitfalls; traffic, potholes and the state of the roads, children, dogs and cattle. So the upshot of this is that I made some prodigeous miles and am now at Phoung Ngha Ke-Bang National Park. I can say that Uncle Ho's highway is pretty bloody good. Very little traffic and even fewer road works. The last 50 Km were incredibly spectacular despite the curtain drawn by the rain. I rode through a Kharst mountain range, a bit like the Bongle Bongle range over in WA. but covered in rainforest. Huge domes of Limestone thrust to the skys around me. I wind around each massive like a centipede goes around a pot plant. Unless you have had the experience it is hard to describe. Those that have done the run around the "loop" in Laos will have an idea exactly what I mean. Fabulous.

Phoung Ngha, the town in which I am currently, was a tiny, very quiet village a bit isolated and very much a backwater. Then a man found the largest cave in the world. In the space of 3 years things have leapt and bound! The poor locals have had to bear the brunt of hordes of backpackers decending on thier quiet ideal (a bit like an earlier Byron Bay). Hotels are bristling all over. New ones competing with old for space at a heady pace. The surrounding country is the spectacular Kharst mountains and this is the thing, that's where the caves are. I am going to try to get to Phoung Ngha cave. It is the one that prexisted all the others. It was used during the American War as a hospital. Vietnamese people make the trip to view. So I hope to join them. Tomorrow I will ride through the park to Khe Sanh.

The photos below do not reflect this part of the journey well. It was so wet I did not want to take out the tablet for a photo, so I only got shots when it was dry.