Active by Nature

March Photo Blogging Challenge:  TEN

Being away on vacation in Vietnam and Cambodia for the past month, I completely forgot about the photo blogging challenge.  But I must have taken over 1,000 photos on this trip and when I looked back at my extensive collection of shots, I realized I had enough to complete the challenge this month.  As luck would have it on day TEN of our fourteen day cycling tour, we cycled 80 km which included a TEN km ascent up spectacular Hai Van pass followed by a TEN kilometre descent down the other side.  Much of the ascent was up a TEN percent grade.  So...... here we GO:

1.  On the TENTH day of the cycle tour, TEN members of our group of sixteen purchased a Cycling Vietnam jersey.  What a colourful group we were!  Here they are modelling the back of the shirt which featured a map of our route from Ho Chi Min City to Hanoi.  We cycled 501 km over the course of 9 days of cycling, going by overnight train and bus the rest of the distance.  Most of our cycling days, the temperature hovered around 40 degrees Celsius.  We had frequent rest stops when copious amounts of cold water and lemonade laced with a bit of salt as well as snacks were offered.  We also doused ourselves with cold water which combined with the air flow over our bodies from moving on our bikes, kept us "relatively" cool.  Occasionally, some members of the group took advantage of taking a rest in our air conditioned bus.  

2.  Starting off, in this photo, you can count TEN (oops, I think on looking again, there might be 10 + 1 in this photo) members of our cycling group, plus our faithful sweep/bike mechanic who always brought up the rear, dealing with any problems we had with our bikes.  He could change a flat in the blink of an eye!  He made sure none of us got lost.  Look at all that enthusiasm as we prepared for our big day of cycling.

3. Now the hard work begins..... a TEN km uphill grind with many sections at a TEN % grade.  I was very glad this day that I opted for an e-bike.  I did this because in my training sessions, of which the longest one was 23 km, I was having some knee pain.  Knowing we had two days of close to 100 km of cycling, I did not want to have to spend most of my time on the bus.  I wanted to ride.  Riding an e-bike, my knee did not give me any issues whatsoever.  But there were other benefits.  As I love to take photos, this allowed me to cycle strongly to the head of our "Vietnam Cycling Posse", snap photos of the group as they rode by, putting me well at the very back of the pack.  Then I would repeat this process, cycling back to the front and taking more photos.  This worked like a charm and I was able to get good photos of everyone, as well as the scenery and cultural highlights.  For a comprehensive photographic look at our tour, here is a link to many, many more photos:  https://www.forever.com/app/users/mandy-johnson--1/albums/cycling-vietnam/1fy0pyx8zkx2mutks13q48db1.  The other benefit was this made all my cycling enjoyable.  Definitely most people who were not riding e-bikes felt this challenging ascent was a bit of a "sufferfest".  I would definitely take the e-bike option when I do future cycling tours.  Not only does the pedal assist flatten out those demanding ascents, but the fact that you move quicker keeps increases the air flowing around you, which keeps you from overheating as much.  Riding a regular bike, when you slow down in hot weather to go up a steep hill, you really feel the heat a lot more.  Being as it was so hot and I was riding so much faster with my pedal assist, this was a huge unanticipated benefit.  There were a total of four of us on e-bikes.  Two of the others were already pretty strong riders and they assisted me with photographing the tour in the same manner as yours truly.  The remaining person was the weakest rider on the tour, a fit and active 70 year old.  On the first day, she found the cycling on a regular bike to be a bit of a challenge.  One of the strong riders who had taken the e-bike option decided she did not need it, so switched with her.   This made all the difference for our 70 year old rider, who had never done a bike tour before.  She was absolutely thrilled and ended up having the experience of a lifetime with the biggest grin on her face every moment of the ride, for the rest of this adventure. 

4.  Almost at the summit, Vicky Young of Canmore takes a break at a viewpoint to peer over the edge of the escarpment, looking way down to the shoreline of the South China Sea, where we had ridden up from.  

5. After the challenging climb, our reward was a thrilling TEN km descent down the switch-backing road, back down to the coastline again.

Cycling Vietnam, with Exodus Travels, was an exceptional adventure!  Details can be found here.  Our group of 16 consisted of 14 females and two guys ...... my husband Colin and my friend Marilyn's husband Don.  We were from Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Canmore, Vancouver, White Rock and one expat now living in Australia.  The group chemistry was fantastic, with many new friendships being established and old acquaintances renewed.  It was so much fun doing this with a group of kindred spirits.  The youngest in the group were in their 50's and there were two people in their 70's.  Our tour guide, Tri, was amazing!  He kept us safe in the insanely busy city traffic we sometimes had to negotiate, had a fabulous sense of humour and enthralled us with his knowledge of and passion for his country.   He also shared with us touching personal stories and gave us a fantastic insight into daily life today in Vietnam.  The tour also provided us with a different perspective on the horrendous "American War" and the toll it took on the people of Vietnam.  From day one he referred to us as "my family" and indeed we felt like one big happy family.  The people of Vietnam were so friendly, especially the children who enthusiastically greeted us with "Hello's" and high fives.  The only downside was the horrendous garbage problem everywhere... in the cities, small villages along the roadside in the national parks, along the shoreline and so much plastic waste in the water, even at Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  But this seems to be a huge global problem in the developing world and third world countries.  It is certainly not unique to Vietnam.  But it was a topic of much conversation as it was very distressing to see the scale of it.  Other than that, the country side was fantastic and the towns and villages... interesting.  Colin and I continued on to Siem Reap, going to Angkor Was and the surrounding temple ruins and finding a really cool geocache hidden at a remote jungle ruin that tourists do not go to, only a handful of adventurous geocachers.  After posting a few photos to Instagram, Geocaching HQ contacted me and plan to feature this find as a future Geocache of the week or in one of their upcoming newsletters.  Stay tuned!!!