Finding the Trail

In Cambodia for the adventure the roads have been too good. Yes this cyclists never happy but I brought a mountain bike looking for the adventure route the idea to tackling some tough roads and get amongst it but so far all I’ve encounter has been smooth tarmac and traffic. All my reading had described the hi-ways in disrepair and I was well prepared for some slow days through Cambodia navigating pot holes and corrugations but it seems by our good fortune we have hit all the good roads, recently sealed and in good condition this is an oddity of infrastructure for this part of the world and I am mightily disappointed. Where’s the adventure? The pain and struggle of a sandy trail mud and river crossings, getting lost and running out of food, throwing up your hands in despair and riding headlong into the unknown. “Ah there it is that line there in the map it gets us off the highway and short cuts straight across to the Mekong in about two days. We’ll avoid the traffic and find some real Cambodians simple people living of the land close to the source.”
It was a miner road on my map but it quickly deteriorated into a roller coaster ride of a trail. I wouldn’t have gotten my 4WD through this track and thankfully it stayed dry for us or it would have been impassable even on foot. The main traffic along this route is bullock driven cart, these people are keeper it real with the full oldschool wooden wagon wheels that squeak and groan as their dragged through the mud by the might of these animals. We skirt the puddles finding a dry line and ride on, standing in the saddle you weave and jostle picking you line for the smoothest ride letting it run out as far as you dare on some nice down hill sections. It’s good fun riding and it keeps you on your toes. The land is flat for the most part forested greenery avoids the heat of the day but theirs some hard work ahead. The trail turns sandy in sections and it takes all your effort to keep the bike in a straight line, from side to side the rear tire spinning, it’s just easier to get of and push it through.
We have tents and plan on self serficency but along the trail your never really alone we come across small villages not on our map. A cluster of thirty families in stilted huts have cleared a section of forest and surrounded themselves with rice paddies they take us as welcome guests and offer a place to sleep and a bowl of rice. Their easy going people and since the rains are yet to come there is no planting to be done and the main activity seems to be social. So when we roll into town we are the full oddity, freaks on bicycles and we get a full gallery going. They are all smiles impressed by Jukka’s digital camera or the Thurmarest that never fails to producing a fit of the giggles, you feel like your behind glass for the most part but since I don’t speak a word of Kumer bar name of the next town I smile and point lots its all kinda funny and I enjoy myself in their company.
Not much changes in these places the farming techniques are the same since the agricultural revolution bullock drawn cart and hand made plows. A communal well that’s good for a wash and stilted huts with thatched roof bare except for soot black kettle on the fire in the corner. It seem like a nice life for the most part the kids seem healthy and always smiling; their must be some unwritten law about the poorer the people the happier the kids.

We wave goodbye the next morning and they point us in the right direction. Navigating is a blast as the trail forks quite often and no way of knowing where we are headed we just ride on sooner or later it seems we always find someone when we need to a guy transporting a calf or women laden with baskets. With the next town the only word we know they point us on it all worked surpassingly well and by the third day we cut across the hi-way heading north. It ain’t much better and at the river crossing the bridge is down, the bridge has been down since the seventies but so is the makeshift alternative and we find a fully laden truck winching itself out of the river. We carry our bikes across but it takes them a few hours to unload and reload the truck by human chain but none seems to grumble it’s just part of the daily life here where nothing seems to work that well. Cambodians recent history of consecutive wars and corrupt governments have really taken their toll and it’s the people who suffer.

We made the Mekong and a mighty sight it be for all the heart ache of the trail. A awesome sight wide brown waters rich with silt of it’s journey. Originating from the melting snow of Tibet it captures the imagination as a source of life for those who live along it’s banks. We rest up in Stung Treng and followed it north across the boarder into Laos and another 1500 kilometers it will be my companion all the way to Luang Prabang.