Hue - December 13th

All too soon our last big day of cycling has arrived, another 90km session but this time over our hardest obstacle so far, the Hai Van Pass at 500m.  But before that we have to cycle 35km to get there, including 10km along the famous China Beach (I’m not sure if it would have been famous except for the TV show) which has the equally famous Da Nang US Air Base on the other side of the road.  The one thing we hadn’t had in all our previous days cycling is a big suspension bridge, but today we have one as we cross into Da Nang itself, and then continue along its bay to the base of the pass.

After Dorota finishes playing with the local kids we head off to climb the 500m pass.  Some parts are quite steep, at 10%, but with a total length of 10km it’s not as bad as I had thought it might be.  This might be because we are just getting better as cyclists with all our practice.  There are some amazing views, and the 3 times we stop to take photos are enough to get us over.  The wind as we reach the top of the pass is also quite strong, but we survive.

Then it is down the other side, a 10km descent, to another of our beach resort lunches.  In the afternoon we get a brief transfer to a new start point, and then we start what may be the most surreal cycle of the whole trip, a 40km trip through a massive cemetery.  It’s not an official cemetery, instead it is just that loads of people have buried their dead here over the many centuries in large graves, so they have lasted for years, and they take up loads of space.  It was an eerie feeling cycling through them.

We actually could have cycled the last 5 km but it was busy and getting dark so this last section was cancelled, and I think everyone was happy as it was a long day.  In the evening we had a thank you dinner with our support team, our bus driver, truck driver and mechanic, because after our cycle tomorrow they will leave us so it is the final night with them.  Beers were fine, but the Vietnamese Whisky they broke out leaves a few sore heads.