After sleeping a solid eight hours I woke up about 7am. Time to get ready, time to get moving, and quick!
After an hour I was back on the road, crossing highway 406 just a few hundred meters down from the resort at a traffic light. Immediately afterwards it was all back country. At first I passed a few more villages, with a few packs of dogs chasing after me, but soon it was all plantations and the first limestone cliffs.
A first short cut took me to a gated plantation, but there was a trail to the right leading into the adjacent rubber trees. After two tries leading to dead ends I finally spotted another trail heading into the right direction. Soon I was out of the rubber tree plantations and back on a farm road.
Mountain ranges to the left and right I made steady progress on mostly paved side roads. After about 30km I covered the short distance to highway 406 for my first meal of the day. The muslim lady at the small food shop was still working up her kitchen, but told me to wait as she would prepare a Rad Na Tale for me. The wait was well worth it, the food delicious.
The next part was to be quite wild, there was much less paved road now, mostly dirt and gravel, and even some overgrown single track for a stretch following a power line. A ford at a stream offered the opportunity to wash up and cool down a bit, while a narrow wooden bridge in the jungle connected to the last part of this excursion into the wilderness.
Back on paved roads between rubber and oil palm plantation my route took me West now, before a beautiful, long downhill towards highway 4137. Along the highway I had my second meal of the day, two bowls of savory beef noodles. The garden setting of the noodle shop with its friendly staff was the perfect spot for a longer stay and that was a good thing with a thunderstorm approaching.
There was just a little rain, the storm passed to the West of the small noodle shop. As it was still early I decided not to stay in one of the nearby motels but move on instead for another fifteen or twenty kilometers or so. The rain had cooled down the afternoon heat, the fresh air and the few rain drops still falling from the overcast sky suggested a comfortable ride for this last part.
And so it was, cool, pleasant, with a drizzle for about an hour, the last kilometres passed through another rubber tree plantation before following a cliff and a river, passing several neat looking villages along the way. A girl on a motorcycle, perhaps in her early teens, and her younger brother passed me several times, waving and smiling. A car stopped, opened the window, just to say hello and send me back on my way with a smile.
With ease I covered the remaining few kilometers, to check in at Prayana resort, for 500 Baht, in a room with a view across the fields and the mountains I had followed on my last leg this afternoon. And yes, if the first thing you do in your room is hosing down your bags, you know you were on a great ride that day!
It was a long ride today but the shade in the plantations and forests combined with the cooling effect of the thunderstorm in the afternoon made for a truly comfortable ride. Hence I rode further today than planned. This was a good decision as the part past lunch was simply stunning, the weather being a part of this.
