Navigating the Enduro course - Jenny's video: in the still shot at the end you can see the headlight cover we made - it is illegal to have the headlights on during the day so we had to cover them.
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| '100 Column Temple' in Pakse |
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| colourful paintings inside the temple |
Visited the '100 Column Temple' before leaving the Kratie riverside on good, paved roads for
the first 10 km. Then it turned to
a graded dirt road for the next 100 km. Next we had a short bit of good paved road for 50 km which soon turned
into a moonscape that was the worst roads we had ever seen. There would be short stretches of paved
road that would transform into a rollercoaster of heaved pavement, gravel and
dirt. Several times we had to stop
before the rough bits to navigate the best course through the slaloms and
moguls.
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| graded dirt road for 100km |
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| loose gravel and heaved pavement |
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| Enduro course on National Hwy #7 |
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| Children playing in the road ruts |
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| Mark navigating through the slaloms and moguls |
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| Waiting for oncoming traffic to get through |
It continued like this right up to the Laos border where we were greeted by a friendly customs agent at the quietest, most chill border crossing I’ve ever seen. We joked with him while filling out paperwork that should have been done when we first crossed into Cambodia to get the bikes registered. Turns out they were only legally in the country for the last 10 minutes of the 2.5 weeks they were there. Other than us, the only people that were crossing at the same time was a family riding one of the makeshift tractors, not enough to disturb the border guards resting in their hammocks.
Once on the Laos side, 45 minutes later, the roads were
excellent and we drove on towards Pakse (170km). The only thing that occasionally made us have to slow down
were random water buffalo, cows, goats, dogs and chickens that wandered onto
the road. Arrived in Pakse at 5:30
after driving past a spectacular sunset behind the mountains. And yes…we are back in the mountains, yeah!!! The first hills we’ve seen since
leaving Thailand – Cambodia and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam are dead flat. Excited for the mountain driving to
come in Laos!
Left: 9:20
Arrived: 5:30
Cambodia: 4:20 hrs…..200 km
Laos:
2hrs…..160 km
Total driving: 6:20 hrs
Total distance:
360 km
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