Day 45, Dong Ha to Khe San

Dong Ha

We woke up at half past six and started cycling two hours later. Why? Because we finally changed the grips of my handlebars; it took us a long time to find breakfast and the weather was dauntingly hot, to the point where we nearly put off cycling for the day. Another reason was that 30km from Dong Ha there is an interesting site: Vinh Moc tunnels that were inhabited by local people during American attacks. 17 babies were born in the incredibly narrow 2,000 metres of tunnels.

The Rockpile

Finally we decided to cycle to Lao and unfortunately to avoid Vinh Moc. After cycling 20km in one hour, we finally felt enough in shape to fight 65km in extreme conditions. One hour later, Katie had a break in the middle of a hill. Maybe the group of men who stopped to wee close to her drove her to join me sooner than planned.

Can you find the "chercheurs d'or"?

The view was nice with hills, lakes and forests along the road. We stopped in a restaurant at 11am. This is the perfect time considering that from this time it becomes unbearably hot. After having recovered enough energy we continued cycling and quickly started a long 5km climb. We had to stop in some shade under a tree because it was still too sunny. The scenic views were amazing and when we looked closely down at the river we saw some people sifting for gold.

The last kilometers were very exhausting and when we arrived in Khe San at 4pm we checked into the first guest house that we encountered and spent the rest of the evening being lazy.