Day 3 Kampong Speu – Kampong Chhnang

(No I’m not making these names up)

Darkness. Again. . Out guest house was on one of the main highways through the area and heavy traffic thundered by as we gather outside. We cycled in pitch black about 500 yards along the roadside to meet Ola and Ange who had left earlier to arrange breakfast which we once again ate at the road side. Picture standing on the side of the Hammersmith flyover having a picnic but with more dust.

It didn’t take us long to get out of town and on to another dirt road taking us back across country. Much of today proved similar to yesterday so I will save you the stage by stage description. The few moments of note during the ride today were running over the second large snake of the trip (wasn’t worth stopping for as someone had beaten us to it and it was pretty flat by the time we came across it, stopping for water by a school and chatting with the children, being educated in the ways of the cashew (surprised to find the nuts grow on the end of a larger fruit but only one nut per fruit which must take an entire tree to make one packet. This can’t be right. There are so many cashew packets to fill and so few cashew trees). I was grateful to Adam for taking over the falling over duties (he excelled at this falling off twice in one day – minor cuts sustained). A cow jam in a narrow section of road and finally the end of the third days riding. Today though was very hot and the sun made for exhausting cycling. By the time the support van had dropped us at the guest house for the night we were all exhausted but as today was ride was the shortest so far at 72 km we arrived slightly earlier than previously and set off to check out the market in Kampong Chhnang.

The market it next to the river which is home to a floating village. At first glance it’s a ramshackle collection of pontoons with small structures built on top and narrow cabined boats with family’s cooking, washing and preparing their wares for sale in the market. As you scan further along the river you realise just how far it stretches and is home to a few thousand inhabitants.

Having found the only place in town serving food that wasn’t a wooden shack we ate and returned to the guest house to prepare our blogs and give the mosquitos their evening meal.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Still looking for my first cup of tea since arriving so maybe it will bring me one of those.