hop on hop off or the day of bad decisions

Nha Trang to Quy Nhon

As we woke in Nha Trang and looked out of the window we realised that the weather hadn't changed.  Grey, rainy and super windy.  Chi told us the day before that a Typhoon is on its way to the coastline which is very unusual for the dry season.  We all got on the bus, 7am, nice and early for our transfer over a couple of mountain passes to our start startpoint of another 90km cycling day.  It took us nearly 3 hours to get finally on the bikes.

me, myself and I

The scenery was stunning on our left we had lush beautiful green rolling hills and on our right the coastline.  The sea was noisy hearing the waves bashing against the rocks.  After one day of rest I was up for another challenge.  Hitting hard in the pedals I quickly was way ahead of the group which made cycling along through the countryside, very peaceful.  listening to some "Metro Area" house tunes gave me the energy to fight against the ridiculous storm, it was a proper fight to actually move forward and not getting blown off.

still happy at this point

With my legs getting a bit tired ,  Quentin races passed me.  About 5 km later I met him again waiting at a junction.  As there was no one of the exodus group signing out which way to go we decided to follow the main road, which was turning left instead of going straight. After cycling through another village and stunning rice paddies we got to a big cross road and again there was no Exodus to be seen.

We were lost!

Turning around was the only option, It was wet and cold and i wasn't very happy I probably could have done without an 8km extension.

Anyway we got back to the junction where we went wrong and expected someone to be there to show us the right way...I mean there was only one way to go,but anyway it would have been nice to be reassured..the following 10 km were hard, very hard thanks god I could duck behind quentin most of the time otherwise I wouldn't have managed.

We arrived at the bus just shortly after everyone else and realised that no one actually realised that we were missing.

very wet and very cold

Being absolutely soaked and cold and grumpy, I decided on our 40 minute transfer to get changed into something dry and give the next 20 km after lunch a miss ! What a fabulous decision, cosy and warm spending time with alex on the bus after a great warming Pho for lunch.  I was very happy again.

school kids on their way home

The bus journey to the next stop seemed to go on for ages and slowly my competitive mind told me                                    "hey, you are not here to sit on a bus,you are here to cycle get your lazy a** out there " And guess what I did, and regretted it, after 5 min being cold and wet to the bone again I just hated myself.  Thanks to Julie, the 25 km went past quicker than expected...having a good chat always made the time go faster.

At the next break, some of our biking friends, which were on the bus for the last 2 legs, wanted to get back on the bikes to do the last 25 km but as I told them that it was the most stupid decision I've ever done to get back on that bike after being dry and warm they left it...

Nanh our bus driver laughing at us fools cycling in those conditions

On that last stretch of cycling on this miserable day, Pamela missed a pothole and managed to cut the back of her ankle and exposed a tendon.
Thanks to my sister's ( Lena Dolch) first aid kit hospital visits could be avoided . Natasha who probably felt like on a busman's holiday after looking after alex two days before and now stitching up pam did a brilliant job looking after our two injured soldiers.





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Note from The Injured Soldier:

Today I are mostly spending time on the bus.  It be grand!

Seriously though, today was a day of regret.  Regret that I seem to have a missing "don't be a d*ck when cycling downhill" gene; regret that I missed the 100km cycling day; regret that I had to sit on a bus for a whole day and was likely going to be doing the same for the coming days.  Grrrr.  Funnily though, I didn't have regret for missing out on cycling in the wind and rain.  I know that sounds a bit weak, but frankly, with the arm and knee looking like the below....well.....do me a favour!

To be honest I came off pretty lightly

The black stuff isn't scab....but road bits

Anyhow, nobody likes a whinger (which is a shame as I am SOOOO good at it!) and so let's just say that today was also a day of good learning experience.  I learned:

If you insist on bring reckless, there is a fairly high probability that you'll lessen the fun in the future.

Given some of the activities to come on our trip, this was a valuable lesson.  I just hope I can remember it.

Yours,

(Wh)Injured of Vietnam