24.4.15
saravan to pain and the bombed bridges
The route around 170KM,
If you have already ridden the section south past the preserved section of the HCMT, then the obvious way back north is to ride through the two bombed bridges making a way back north Prince Soupanouvang Bridge that comes to view after only 30km or so, the route partly sealed then onto pretty reasonable graded stuff until you're near the bridge area.
It would make a great camping spot in the dry season and crossing is a simple affair even for heavy trucks, although i guess September would be a different matter.
As with Long Cheng i was to visit later, the place has a surreal calmness about it a far cry from when it was bombed during the sixties.
As ever keen spectators hoping for a show, but not today.
I am sure in time this whole route will be paved, the old timber bridges a sad reminder of the rapid change taking place in Laos.
Charcoal ovens hard at work.
Some of the old bridges still in use, it was a case of take the bridge or take a bull dust bath in the 40 degrees plus heat.
Aggregate processing plant.
Quickly the route narrowed as i got past the construction works.
Hard to figure what people do for a living around here, logging all but finished and little signs of serious farming.
More kid's running scared of the farang !!
I stopped to take a few shots at this small logging camp, but got shouts to stop so i complied.
Another dry and dusty settlement.
It was about now it felt like someone had just turned up the gas burners and my Camelbak was almost empty and i hadn't even reached half way
This was beginning to be hard going with deep pockets of bull dust carved up by the iron buffalo's over what would be stream crossings and the like.
Even the shaded sections offered little relief.
Actually stopped here for a while to try and cool off, bad new's i was not only running out of water but i was using gasoline at an alarming rate and no signs of life on the GPS.
Fortunately a small village came into view and i asked around for a shop of some kind, these guys escorted me to the local corner shop, hard to imagine they would find anything to shoot around here.
Co ord's of shop with fuel drum
N16.18387 E106.02180
Safely undercover, 5 red bull's and two bottles of water later i was rehydrated and good to go.
Very sparse village.
Underway for first signs of very welcoming water, but the buffalo's had beaten me to it.
Back into nice dusty sections, i bet this would be a bloody great ride in December before the dust kicked in (note to self) its a labyrinth of small trails and easy to get lost even with the GPS.
At last the Xe Banghiang bridge came into view.
It became clear there was no way i was riding across this one and looked for the local water taxi.
More evidence of the impending doom of this nice trail, a nice bridge in progress.
Note. The GPS will take you to a slip which is out of use, so a little ride on the riverbank is required.
Here comes my lift @ 5,000 kip better than swimming.
New bridge well underway.
It was a great spot and i should have taken more time for pictures, but to be honest i was hallucinating and all i could see was a nice bottle of cold beer Laos...
Once across it was a nice graded road to Phin with a few nice obstacles along the way.
Quickly i arrived at the Helicopter in Phin and decided to go back to the Viengxay Hotel N16.70003 E106.20859 in Xepone where i was guaranteed a nice bed, food and cold beer and a late night caller to boot !!!
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