The parents of the lady running the homestay were duly there at 7am with some breakfast and we were ready to go soon after 7:30.
After a short few kms through the valley, nervously checking the terrain, the first hill started – and it was steep. Well, it felt steep, but after a month of quite flat riding, anything would feel steep.
It was a humid climb and I arrived at the top, covered in sweat, to find a coffee shop with a view looking down the valley. Miles was sipping coffee as I rolled in – he’d left before me while I was packing my bike.
The coffee was nice, like the downhill. We had expected few villages today but the reality was, that we were rarely a few kms away from towns and food shops all day.
It may have been strenuous but it was beautiful with lots of friendly people along the way.
We expected lunch in Thanh Phu which was surprisingly large, but neither of us felt particularly hungry as we’d snacked at available food along the way. The climb of the day was yet to come and neither of us were looking forward to it. In the end, it wasn’t so bad and we enjoyed the downhill as usual.
About 10kms from our destination, we’d been told about some hot springs but we struggled to find them. The area was full of homestay so it was clearly the local attraction.
Miles found a large pool connected to one of the homestays and nobody minded that we used the pool. A hot soak mid-ride is something I could get used to. It was wonderful.
What remained was one final unexpected hill which was uncomfortable but I knew that was the end of the efforts for the day.
The hotel in Nghia Lo is really nice. It took a while to find some dinner but in the end, the Bun Cha from a small restaurant in the main street was exactly what we needed.