Day Five: Where's Wally?

The delights of the hotel continued to please. Dinner was served in the banqueting hall,  but no-one leapt on the stage to perform. Dinner felt very civilised with attentive staff and the usual diet of rice, chicken and nuts, beans watercress and garlic. Our guides left us looking ready for a big night on the town with pressed shirts and big anticipatory grins.  Clearly there's something about Malwyamine for  young men to dress up for.  We retired to the terrace for some Dutch courage beer style in anticipation of the big hill tomorrow.

Morning dawned with a nice breakfast on the same picturesque terrace with a view over the river - as long as you didn't look too closely at the magnitude of rubbish washing up along the shore.

At 0745 we were ready to board the bus out of town. But we were missing our guides! Stef called Wallace to be told they had a problem with the van.  We suspect their cover was blown when they rocked up about 40 minutes later looking rather worse for wear and wearing the same clothes they had left for their night out!

The morning did indeed start,  rather later than anticipated,  with a big hill. Even the Budda at the top was reclining.

In fact I think it was over more quickly than billed. We were joined by our own police escort for much of the morning: a sort of Burmese CHiPs.... On a moped.

As we came down the other side of the mountain the landscape changed to lush green pancake flat paddy fields surrounded by mountains and interrupted by rocky outcrops. In short, spectacular.

Equally as spectacular was the concentration required to cross the two suspension bridges, each almost a kilometre. The cycle path was just two feet wide or else we risked tye peril of tyre sized gaps between the iron slats.  And just to add to the thrill the second bridge had missing sections of safety rail.  Thrill seekers will enjoy this video: I love Clive's punch of the air when he reaches terra firma.

Lunch in a small restaurant run by an enthusiastic young chap was punctuated by a couple of illnesses: poor Kirsty and Crispin succumbing to the heat, or a bug, or both. Once back on our bikes we completed another 27kms along a straight, flat tree lined road flanked by large paddy fields and waterways with impressive mountains for a backdrop and our day in the saddle was complete. Our last few kms completed in the first rain of the trip and we finally also cracked the skill of cycling as a group by now.

At one of our regroup stops Wallace was approached by three men from Burma's SkyNet TV channel asking for an interview when we got to the hotel. Stardom at last! I'm sure our pace clocked up a notch as the camera car drove past.  Not just the villagers we've passed on out travels, but now the whole country will be able to witness the invasion of Stef and Crispin's florescent lycra army!

On the way to the Hotel Zwekabin we stopped at the field of a thousand Buddhas, situated at the foot of an imposing mountain that glowed an eerie ruddy colour as the sun set. Rachel, in particular, was purring as we drove into the hotel grounds...a collection of lodges nestled below the mountain. We'll wake up to quite a view.

So a further 64km added to the tally today. There's no doubting this is a real challenge with ripples, undulations, and hills to conquer, and each of us have had our own personal moments where the challenge felt like it could beat us.  But it's a great group, and it's amazing how many more kms you can complete, that you really didn't know you had in you when a cycling buddy comes up alongside you and kicks off a conversation...

So who are those buddies? I haven't had a chance to mention everyone yet,  so here's this action movie's cast list:

Producer: Crispin
Director : Stef

Leading Ladies
Donna
Kate
Gemma
Kirsty
Margaret
Lisa
Rachel
Karen

Main Men
Alan
Marc
Ben
Clive
Peter G

Fathers & Sons
Peter W & Adam
Stephen & Ed
Crispin & Sam

Screenplay
Chris