If you like things long, hot, sweaty, fully loaded and preferably straight, then Cambodia is your place.  Such roads we’ve graced in the South East have been a superb dose of mind over matter.  Clocking up mileage, early starts and sore bums our last few weeks have been a fantastical change in gear.

We left Siem Reap amidst a plague of scooters buzzing in to feast on the tourist mecca.  The reaches of the town and consequent trade and work force it pulls from the surrounding country side is immense.  Our 5am starts always dish us up a secret slice of what the world is like before most travellers wake.

Sunrise delights

The first day in the saddles we were aided by a terrific tailwind.  Easily covering our 110km in around 4.5 hours.  Wheels rolling to have us at our stop well before 11am and the hottest part of the day.  The following morning wasn’t so lucky and we were sharing pole position to battle against a rough headwind.  The same distance took us a sizzling 10hrs and well into the heat.

After a slightly extended stay in Siem Reap due to fixing our laptop these two days were a shock to the system.  Arriving in Battambang Brian got taken down with a tummy bug so we hauled up for a few days to recover.  He affectionately told me I shouldn’t ever seek a career in health care and I’ve promised to work on my sympathy and patience. It’s not just the bikes and travelling that remind us to keep growing 😉

Street food, innards and all, Cambodian style

With time to spare I cycled to the nearby Killing Caves, a sight of the Khmer Rouge regime.  It’s unfathomable to think these atrocities were carried out in the late 70’s.  A quarter of the population, 2 million people, were executed at the hands of the governing party.  Senselessly tortured for their faith, profession or ethnicity and some even for merely wearing glasses.  A sobering day and reminder of the bigotry that can blinker the minds of those in power.

Khmer methods of torture immortalised in a grim sculpture

Killing Cave human skulls in a tribute shrine

Both rested and raring to go we avoided the main roads and headed into the Cardamom Mountains for our onward passage.  This range is truly wild in parts with Tigers, Bears and mongoose stalking its most isolated reaches.  The first day began with tarmac before becoming a dirt road after 10km.  Then came the dust like sifted flour half a foot deep and boulders, rocks and rain crevices for the last 80km.

Dusty Cardamom roads

It’s not only the prevailing winds that knock your pace on the bike, the surface plays as much a part.  These rubble strewn dusty paths had us down to between 5-10km an hour.  It’s too hot to get the tent up at night and there’s no water or civilisation around for vast stretches of the way.  Hence you commit to 100km+ days and get the job done.

Taking advantage of rare spots of shade

There’s nothing like feeling the limits of your bodies capability.  Pushing on, retreating to the safety of your mind and letting your muscles tick away. I expect we are all stronger both mentally and physically than we know.  Our whole trip is an opportunity to step out of our comfort zones though these days push us even further towards that line.

It reminds us how important moments like this must be.  Learning and loving our limits. Letting our imaginations throw open the doors for everything as a possibility. Seeking adventure and experiences that overflow in variety, wonder and means of education.  Shouldn’t we all strive to see and do things differently? Change our perspective and enjoy the refreshing breeze of opening new window in our minds? I’m reminded of a beautiful quote from Mr Einstein, a far more eloquent and poetic scribe than me.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

The Cardamoms had only just begun and it was another 3 days of getting down and, quite literally, dirty.  Dams are cropping up in this part of the world and with them comes development.  Swaths of our roadside forest being burnt for farming, pylons joined the horizon and ghostly flooded buildings sat amidst the waters as the human touch begun to throttle.

Ghostly flooded houses care of the Dam

A dirt facial care of Brians dust

Progress = deforestation and pylons galore

Jungle starts in the Cardamom

By the end of 10hrs in the saddle it’s sometimes hard to fathom the sun has only risen once.  Our last day out of the mountains saw us take a rest stop in Koh Khong.  From remote villages and jungle to horns, tuks tuks and herds of people.  All in a tough days cycle.

Although we were now blessed with tarmac beneath our wheels we were back to the flat, hot and straight culprits with which this post began.  Once the sun beats you past midday, reaching 36+ degrees, it’s a struggle to find even a dot of shade  Topping the cake on our first nights stop we were greeted with plastic sheets, a useless fan, one heavily soiled bathroom and a slice of gouda cheese disguised as a mosquito net. 

Miraculously stealing a couple of hours sleep we were up out of our puddles of sweat for the final leg of 135km to Utres Beach, south of Sihanoukville.  Tired from the off and every way we turned the wind seemed to greet us face on like an angry Fishermans wife.  Though to arrive at the coast and let our weary bodies bob soothingly in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand was all the more blissful.

Coastal rivers and houses waking up with sunrise

Time to relax and recuperate

It was funny to think recently that Brian and I have now been together longer on the road than off in our relationship.  Although we roll by each others side the adventure is as much an individual journey of knowing ourselves and processing the things we experience.  It’s been a great few days rest on Utres Beach.  Catching up on skypes, admin and reacquainting each other with our off the bike selves.

In two days we’ll be heading to our next border crossing for 2.5 months through Vietnam. We’ll be crossing the Mekong Delta as she comes to an end, getting fully accustomed to coastal life and keeping our imaginations and minds open for the journey ahead.

Goodbye from us and thanks to Albert for the borrowed words of wisdom 🙂

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