Day 1 – Surat Thani to Sichon
Today was the first day of the Every Province Challenge, an Idea that Natt and I, well mostly I, dreamed up, but something that Natt has come on board with more recently. As I sit in Sichon, in Nakhon Si Thamarat province, eating a lovely and cheap chicken basil on rice dish I am very happy. The first day is done. Only 80km but it was on a new fully loaded bicycle, and all you cyclists know a new bike means new aches and pains.
I have a little niggle behind my left knee and Natt has a very sore ass from sitting in the recumbent position, totally new to her with only 300kms in the saddle. I excepted her to have more trouble getting used to it, but honestly after today I think my new riding position on this bike is using a whole new set of muscles. Also, my feet are more forward than usual and as the bike is fully loaded there is a lot more weight to be handled on the climbs. I feel like the weight might be a bit too much and look forward to shipping a few items back home to lighten the load.
We have already started working out what we can post home to mum and dad in Bangkok. I know we’ve got too much shit, but we want to be prepared for as much as possible. I think over the next 2 weeks we will work out what we have NOT touched and dump it.
Just on a side note, this Krapow Gai is AWESOME. Ok, so the hotel is crap tonight, musty and the air conditioner does not work, but it’s 300 Baht, and since we’re trying to stay under 1,000 Baht per day some cheap shit rooms will be had during this ride. And this one is SHIT. They did have rooms for 600 Baht at this place but since we’ll be in the Amphur Mueang (Capital City) tomorrow night, I think we’ll need to save the budget for that.
The ride is fine, traffic was a little busy up until the Don Sak turn off where trucks use the pier there to visit Samui and Pha Ngan Islands. After the Don Sak turn off the traffic dropped off and it was a large road with few vehicles. It was all uphill until the 60kms mark, slow and gradual and there was a lovely 10kms downhill section to the beach. On this downhill section we starting rolling at nearly 60kms per hour! With our Hase Pino Tour tandem fully loaded and with my 95kgs combined with Natt’s 55kgs of weight the whole thing must have weighed in excess of 220kgs. We didn’t weigh the bags and I kind of wish we had.
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