Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Final, Stunning Ride

The time had come for our final ride.
Hilly extended the challenge to everyone to race uphill about 6km, before we all joined in for the ride down. About 7 of the strongest riders took up his challenge, and so the rest of us cheered them from the bus as we watched them pedal up the steep pass.
At the top of Pheonix Pass, we prepared ourselves for the deep decent.
Like the first downhill decent we did 3 days earlier, this downhill ride was many kilometers of twists and turns. We were not simply riding down a hill, but 12 km down a mountain, which meant down...turns, down, round, all the way...fast! Beaks on most of the time, very little control if you don't. But unlike that ride 3 days days ago, we had more traffic to contend with.
The trucks moved very slowly, whilst we careered down, and overtaking was a necessity; if we could see if anything was coming from the other direction...
Look, it was 3 days ago now, I'm behind in this blog, the moment has passed. All I can say is; we all survived, we made it down safely. No-one fell, everyone had a fabulous experience.
We rode on for another 9 km, stopping to look (from the outside) at a local family's house. Let's just say that about 8 of them were sitting in the doorway because there were no windows...
The very last part of the ride was special for me, because I managed to keep up with the pack; following Jenny for about 5 km. Claire and I were behind Hilly; a rarity for me to be in the front, when we finally stopped and called it a day. We celebrated by taking lots of photos and lying in hammocks, before catching the bus to Nha Trang.

2 comments:

  1. I'll be looking forward to hearing about the last ride! I've been so busy with family, I've only just signed on today since Saturday, but my thoughts have been with you all the way!

    Susan

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  2. Hi Karyn

    This is all so amazing!!! What a wonderful achievement. Thanks for the blog - You have really kept us informed - even though it has taken me a while to figure out how it works

    Lots of love Anita

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