Training Log Archive: revyIn the 1 days ending Oct 31, 2019:
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Thursday Oct 31, 2019 #
8 AM
Bike 6:00:00 [2] 101.0 km (16.8 kph) +1925m
shoes: Norco Search XR
Day Two - Ba Be to Nguyen Binh. Today ended up being a longer ride than anticipated due to some issues with accommodations. This was the only day of the ride when we had nothing booked ahead of time. I knew there were some guesthouses in Thinh Tuc where we planned to stop but couldn't book them ahead of time. We left Ba Be and after passing through Cho Ra (which was essnentially a few km of stores and houses along the road - a similar set up for many of the towns on the route) found ourselves in much more remote terrain than yesterday. There was still farms and houses but felt quieter which was nice. We took a nice short cut that saved a few km via a back lane and saw some nice rural scenes. After a water stop (lots of small places to buy snacks and water) we started the long climb from 200m to 1350m. It was pretty sunny but the climb was not steep and spent alot of time in the shade so we never overheated. Started seeing locals dressed differntly suggesting we were seeing some of the northern hill tribes (which are ethnically Chinese rather than Vietnamese). 2/3 of the way up we passed through a small town. Our first attempt to find some real food didn't go too well but our second attempt led to a nice lunch of fried rice with egg.
The last portion of the climb had a fair bit of smooth gravel and fairly expansive views though in a direction that was towards the lower hills so nott super dramatic. Once down the other side views were more exciting as much more karst topography was visible. We had a longish descent to the junction with QL37 then a few more km to Thinh Tuc. There we fouind the one guesthouse but were told we couldn't stay there. They suggested we backtrack 5km to the hwy junction where there was another guesthouse. This one also said we couldn't stay there... it didnt appear to be a space issue as both seemed empty. Perhaps they aren't allowed to host foreigners? The language barrier added a layer of complexity and unfortuantely this portion of the route had no local homestays available (these were every 15km it seemed a few days later). The gentleman at the second hotel was not hlelpful as he suggested Ba Be or Baolac as options (both a five hour ride away which was not realistic given the time of day). We decided to ride 10km towards Cao Bang (in the wrong direction) to Nguyen Binh where I knew there was a hotel. We did manage to find a room but in retrospect had a few better options availaable there and should have been more picky. Of course at that point we were happy to find a place so snapped up the first place we found. At least it was cheap... the only other postiive was the great views on the additional section we rode. The ride ended up being 20km longer than planned.
The last portion of the climb had a fair bit of smooth gravel and fairly expansive views though in a direction that was towards the lower hills so nott super dramatic. Once down the other side views were more exciting as much more karst topography was visible. We had a longish descent to the junction with QL37 then a few more km to Thinh Tuc. There we fouind the one guesthouse but were told we couldn't stay there. They suggested we backtrack 5km to the hwy junction where there was another guesthouse. This one also said we couldn't stay there... it didnt appear to be a space issue as both seemed empty. Perhaps they aren't allowed to host foreigners? The language barrier added a layer of complexity and unfortuantely this portion of the route had no local homestays available (these were every 15km it seemed a few days later). The gentleman at the second hotel was not hlelpful as he suggested Ba Be or Baolac as options (both a five hour ride away which was not realistic given the time of day). We decided to ride 10km towards Cao Bang (in the wrong direction) to Nguyen Binh where I knew there was a hotel. We did manage to find a room but in retrospect had a few better options availaable there and should have been more picky. Of course at that point we were happy to find a place so snapped up the first place we found. At least it was cheap... the only other postiive was the great views on the additional section we rode. The ride ended up being 20km longer than planned.