Day Two
Hua Hin to Prachuap Khirikhan (120km)
Day two had us all wondering – whose idea was this!!!! The morning started out with a lovely gentle ride together through pineapple fields, around interesting tiny back streets, past lakes of glass-like water and on to the coast again. What a gorgeous sight awaited us with the sun on the water, fishing boats and the locals to greet us along the way. We stopped to feed the baby elephant on the side of the road and to help a group of fishermen get their stranded boat into the water.
As we hit the heat of the day, with a 25km highway run that was a bit of a kill, and a long long long ride, complete with headwind, into our next water stop the challenge began. The reward, however, was a stunning temple (or Wat) set against a backdrop of a sheer cliff face. A nice photo shoot and a bit of an extra long stop which made for a rather long day….made a tad longer of course by a wrong turn (no Jerry, we’re really not blaming you) which added another 5km to our 116km day.
Lunch was a long time coming (at the 88km mark) and somehow pad thai doesn’t seem as appealing in the middle of a very hot and sweaty ride. It was nice, however, to have the worst of the day behind us and we all made the last 30km into Prachuap Kiri Khan to be greeted by some rather vicious monkeys…followed by a much needed cold beer!
For most normal human beings, this would have been enough of a challenge for the day, but not for Jerry and Tony who found the energy to run (not walk) 3km up hill to a temple – while the rest of us were totally crashed out or in the pool. They did however rasine another $A 750 for the orphage through bets made before setting off…what a great effort!!
Dinner, more massages (a couple more beers) and off to bed to recover.
