Well after a very deep and dreamless sleep it was time to do it all again. Another pre-dawn bowl of Pho and it was time get to work on the first 3.5km hill off the day, starting right at the edge of town, with an average over 10% – an interesting way to wake up the legs.

All the aches and pains melted away as hit the descent though. A beautiful swooping road set into the side of the mountain. The surface was good and we could usually see a few corners ahead, so we could really let the bikes run.

We flew down into Meo Vac for a second breakfast and to top up on some supplies as we weren’t too sure where the next food would be. The town was filling up for market day so all the local ethnic tribes were out in the finest clothes. Some of the men were hitting the rice wine already, pig carcasses were being butchered on the edge of the street, juvenille pigs were having the tesitcles felt (and squealing very loudly in protest), and nearly every second person seemed to be carrying a chicken, some times more than 1.

As we rolled out we saw this road sign

It translates literally as ‘Happiness Road’, never has a road been more aptly named. Another short climb lead us to a monster of a descent, the first half was a lot like the last descent, David and I hit 69km/h. It was like yesterday’s monster climb in reverse, in all it took us just 20km to loose all of our hard won altitude.

Most of the rest of the morning was through rolling countryside, following a river, but every few minutes there would be people, sometimes waving, sometimes oblivious to us, but everyone seemed to be on the move on Sunday morning.

Truth be told I was struggling and by the time we clocked up a 100k and stopped for lunch I was thinking of ways to grab a tow from Jonny on the last few hills I knew we had ahead. A belly full of rice and some new resolve saw us head out for the last stretch. By this time Asger’s years off the bike were taking their toll on his, shall we say, ‘contact points’ so the two of rolled along together determined to savour the last 60 or 70k as best we could.

The road was never really flat, we climbed, we cruised, we spun our way along amidst rice paddies and stilt houses and finally, with 10km to go, we crested the last hill. We found David waiting in probably the best located bar in Vietnam with cold beer and a bucket shower waiting for us, and random locals photographing us on their phones.

The view from my stool:

The next 10k were a joy, we swooped down to the edge of town, and then rode through town behind Jonny’s bike, looking for all the world as if we’d just done something special. In my mind, at least, I had.

For those that are interested in such things, here’s a screen shot of day 2’s Strava info from David’s phone, my Garmin died half way through the day, unaccustomed as it to such deeds. All achievements are his alone. (The route from day 1 is basically the major road running to the north.)