A strong start to the day
N 20°27'45.0'' E 105°26'36.9''
Date:
10.11.2016
Day: 503
Country:
Vietnam
Province:
Hòa Bình
Location:
Vu Ban
Latitude N:
20°27’45.0”
Longitude E:
105°26’36.9”
Daily kilometers:
66 km
Total kilometers:
20,432 km
As the crow flies:
50 km
Average speed:
20.6 km
Maximum speed:
43.7 km/h
Travel time:
3:08 hrs.
Soil condition:
Asphalt / gravel
Maximum height:
600 m
Total altitude meters:
55.768 m
Altitude meters for the day:
827 m
Maximum depth:
Sunrise:
06:04
Sunset:
5:19 pm
Temperature day max:
16°C
Departure:
09:20 a.m.
Arrival time:
2:30 pm
(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).
Hung collects a few eggs from his free-range chickens, which I crack into a small pan to make fried eggs. “That looks nasty,” I say, pointing to a smelly brown egg. Hung laughs, tapping his finger in the egg yolk to mix it with the other eggs. “Không tốt”, (Not good) I say, asking him to stop poking. Then I throw the spoiled egg into a bucket. “Is it tasty?” asks Tanja as I eat my fried eggs a little later. “Yummy. Would you like one?” “Thanks, I’d rather eat my hard-boiled eggs.”
Our bikes are packed shortly after 9:00 am. I look up at the cloudy, dull sky with scrutiny. “Do you think it will rain again soon?” asks Tanja. “Could be, but I think the typhoon has lost its power.” We say goodbye to Hoe and Hung, who will also be leaving this place in a few weeks to move into a stone house near the town of Ninh Binh. “We will live there with our children, although it is very difficult for me to leave this place,” Hung told us yesterday.
“Có một chuyến đi tốt!” (Have a good trip), they shout after us as we pedal our bikes through the giant bamboo forest up to the mountain road. Before the narrow concrete path climbs even steeper, I stop and let Ajaci jump out of the trailer. So my bike is 35 kg lighter and I should make it to the top. “Denis!” it suddenly calls behind me. In the rear-view mirror I see Tanja stop at the steepest section. Out of breath, I park my Roadtrain on the narrow road and hurry down to help her. “It’s impossible to ride the bike up there with the heavy trailer,” she says. “I’ll try for you,” I say, swinging myself into her saddle, riding 50 meters down and thundering towards the steep section with a running start. “Watch out!” I hear Tanja’s warning. I’m just whizzing past her when I almost come to a halt a few meters later. “Push!” I shout. Tanja has the presence of mind to run after me, puts both hands on the trailer and pushes with all her might while my legs hammer the pedals like a steam engine. With the support of the electric motor and Tanja’s efforts, I get the heavily laden bike up the 15 percent climb meter by meter. “Don’t let up!” my words echo in the humid air. Once I reach the top, I am unable to speak for minutes. My heart is racing and my lungs are rattling. “A great start to the day,” says Tanja. “Yes, I hope it doesn’t remain so strenuous and the typhoon hasn’t triggered too many avalanches.” “You mean we’d have to push our bikes over rubble and earth?” “Exactly. Hope we get through safely.”
The mountain road winds its way upwards through a fairytale landscape. The Bosch motors whirr quietly and help us to steer the bikes over the gravel and clay tracks. The bikes are running perfectly and it’s a great pleasure to be on the road again, despite the many climbs and the sometimes very bad road. Fortunately, an excavator has cleared away many of the avalanches that have actually thundered down the slope in the past few days. In some places, the remaining mud and sometimes deep puddles force us to descend. We carefully push our bikes over the sticky surface. An extremely strenuous undertaking that requires a healthy body. “Is that okay with your shoulder?” asks Tanja. “It cracks from time to time, but I can do it. But that wouldn’t have been possible just two weeks ago,” I’m sure. A mighty avalanche rushed past a house on stilts and tore a section of the road down into the valley. “It was a good decision to sit out the typhoon with war veteran Hung,” says Tanja.
The mountain road, carved into the rock and dug into the mountain by humans, winds its way along the Hoa Binh reservoir for almost 30 kilometers. In places, it is reminiscent of a pristine and fantastically beautiful panoramic trail. And yet appearances are deceptive, as the typhoon has left its mark on it in the form of rubble, rock and yellow earth. Every few kilometers we have to stop and scrape the caked clay off the tires.
Today we will leave behind us the mountain and pass roads that have been an integral part of this e-bike expedition for almost 1 ½ years and have allowed us to conquer 57,000 meters of altitude (7 x Mount Everest). Even though mountain rides are usually something special in terms of scenery, we are looking forward to finally being able to glide along on our bikes without any major inclines. In a few kilometers we will reach the famous Ho Chi Minh Highway, which, according to Manh Do, winds through the wide valleys of Vietnam’s hills and mountains for the first 500 kilometers without any major elevations…
If you would like to find out more about our adventures, you can find our books under this link.
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