After spending the night in a larger town than over the last week, I embarked on my third route and this would turn out to be the biggest adventure of them all.  Flowers, rocks, UNESCO site, a crash, amazing scenery, The North Pole , funky desserts and isolation.  Again I followed the route from Vietnam Coracle.

Vietname Coracle

Here is the route, 320 km to Bao Lac.

I left Ha Giang with the plan to stay the night in Yen Minh (100km) but I ended up pushing on to Dong Van (144km total). Immediately I came across some beautiful scenery and my first lot of roadworks.  We waited for about 30 mins while a dozer cleared the road from a slip so I got chatting to the locals as usual while we waited.

This is what the roads looked like.  I thought I was in the Tour de France.

I mentioned about about the flowers, these were amazing

By now I had entered the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geo Park which is UNESCO Listed.  There were some amazing rock formations along the way.  I had lunch in Tam Son, Bun Cha:).  I stopped for a break in Yen Minh and I bought a red t-shirt with the Vietnamese yellow star on the front.  It is what all the young Vietnamese wear on their pilgrimage to the North Pole, northern most point of Vietnam.  I saw some interesting things on my travels

I stopped at a cultural village which allowed you to go into their houses.  Pretty primitive but very interesting.

What amazed me were the loads that the women (young girls sometimes) would be carrying on their backs.  When driving you would see what you thought was a moving bush but it would be a woman carrying some of these loads.

From here to Dong Van, the scenery was amazing and the rocks were purple and the villages and rice fields nestled into the mountains.

I made it to Dong Van and had a relaxing night exploring the town.

The next day I planned to go to the North Pole and then finish the route so another big day, but Oscar had other plans for me.  I headed back the way I had come and then headed north.  It was an overcast day and as I made my way further north I got into fog.  Made it to the north pole and climbed about a million steps to the top.

You can see why I wanted a red t-shirt, I would have felt left out! Again you could see China.  I then set off back the way I came and off to Bao Lac.  All was going well until I turned a right hand corner and there was mud on the bitumen and Oscar decided to take a rest, no warning.  I skidded on by right with the my right elbow and right side of my face (full face helmet) being the point of impact.  I then lay there, very still and then heard voices, no bright lights and was helped up by the car that was following me.  Thankfully I was OK and so was Oscar.  They picked my bike up and I got back on and drove really slowly.  I think I was doing about 25km/hr and I had all the right gear on so I was lucky.  This is what my clothes looked like, I had a leather jacket on under the fluro.

I got to a cross road and pulled over and then it dawned on me what had happened and I had a few tears and two motorbike riders stopped and checked out Oscar who pulled up magnificently, apparently the rest is just what he needed!  I called Niels, love technology and I amended my plans as I couldn’t actually lift my right arm up.  I knew I hadn’t broken anything but I was very sore.  I limped back to Dong Van (metaphorically) and checked into the same hotel I had checked out of about 2 hours earlier.  I rested the rest of the day hoping my shoulder would improve.

I woke up the next day, a bit stiff but confident that I could drive the 180km.  The views were unreal and I met an Israeli couple who took some photos of me, and also got some Vietnamese to take a photo of Oscar and I.  I had broken my selfie stick.

Along the way, there were a couple of things worth taking a photo of, a couple getting wedding photos taken on their scooter, a boy who was resting on the side of the road and washing day.

And house builders in traditional clothing.  I bought myself one of those jackets so watch out people. 

It was cold at the top where the photos were taken, but once into the valleys it was warm and the road followed the river.  For brunch I had some fried food, not sure what it was but it rocked. The cooks were eating half of the food as well so I knew it must be good.

Along the way I saw women making yarn and this is how they stack their hay.

The road again was pretty windy and I saw four dams being constructed on the river I was following.

I stopped for a drink and another foreigner came along for a drink on his motorbike.  He was German but had lived in Australia.  He was in a bit of a state because he had lost his bag with his passport and cash in it so he was trying to retrace his steps.  He was very interesting and had travelled extensively around Vietnam and around the world.  I asked him a question that I had been trying to work the answer out to.  “Why do women here in Vietnam do most of the work including manual labour?”  The answer was “The men are use to fighting wars and living in jungles so they don’t know what to do when they come back.  This is one of the longest periods that they haven’t been fighting”.  To me this makes sense.  Anyway he went off to find his bag and I went to Bao Lac.  Now to be honest I don’t know if this is where I stayed, I don’t actually know where I stayed as the distances didn’t make sense to me.  Anyway I found accomodation (yes it is very tall) and went for a wander around the town and had some weird looking, good tasting dessert.

It was then time for dinner so I found a place close to my “tall” hotel and sat down, I was the only customer.  The lady asked me what I wanted and I thought I said chicken and rice (in Vietnamese).  Anyway I waited, then all of a sudden, a woman sits at my table and starts talking in English asking what I would like to eat.  This is the cooks’ sister.  She is an English Teacher at the local school and had to come and assist as translator.  She sat while I ate and we talked and I also met some of her students.  I found out the hotel I was staying in is owned by her cousin, a family affair!

This was a wonderful trip except for Oscar taking an unexpected rest but it is all part of it.

Dates: 11th October 2016 to 13th October 2016