Chappy in Laos

Udomxai to Nong Khiaw: 111km
Avg:17.3 RT:6:20


Quite a big one. Mountain passes through jungle hilltop villages. Plenty of big potholes and broken road to contend with, and a steady trickle of trucks to keep it interesting. Nice flat sunset finish..

Learnt not to trust our maps, we'd guessed more like 90k. Funny how those extra 20ks seem to make such a difference.

Nong Khiaw to Viang Khan: 47.5 km
Avg: 14.3 RT:3:18
Morning cave stop-

Although short this was one of the steepest climbs we've done.

Viang Khan to Vieng Thong: 116km
Avg: 15 RT:7:44

Possibly toughest day yet. After the usual 20k wakeup climb, the road followed an undulating mountain ridge through villages for a while, before descending into a national park. Riding through thick jungle, the road turned from gravelly and potholed to a nice new windy sealed road, and with traffic basically nil. I can't imagine a better country for cycle touring. At one stage i saw no one for an hour or two as the kiwi had shot off up the mountain ahead. Luckily we had stocked up on water and sugary snacks as there was no places to buy any.

The long climb up to the top of the next series of mountains was punishing to say the least. Here i am, hurting...



And once again our maps let us down. The 95k or so finish we predicted didn't happen, and instead we had one final steep climb before the fun decent into town


Lots of these signs. Eyes were peeled but alas no tigers.

Hang there goes on now........

Vieng Thong to Nam Neun: 64km
Avg:14.4 RT:4:28
Morning pre departure cuppa-

Again started with a 18 or so km climb to shake the cobwebs off. Very gravelly road with pot holes made progress slow.




Final steep descent into town was on a nice smooth well built deutch road. Great fun letting loose on hairpins and chicanes.

Small town, the people here are chili mad.

Stuck in Nam Noen- had a coupla days off the bike, i was badly leaking out from both ends. Think it was the beef... sick as a dog