So close, yet so far

Distance: 78km

At the start of the day David tried to pursuade us to stay for another day. While it was tempting to rest and enjoy a trip to the local fishing village and the fireflies at night, we were so close to Thailand, we just wanted to get there.

As our new Sardinian friend Willy prepared to head off, we realised that we should soon follow before it got to hot. So whilst we enjoyed our traditional Malaysian breakfast of sweet pancakes, rice bread dipped in curry and milo we said our goodbyes to him with hopes of seeing him again when we return to Australia. He was riding to Kuala Lumper and then flying to Melbourne, where he would spend some time cycle touring before finding work for a year.

We left soon after and David jumped on his bike to ride with us part of the way towards Butterworth. We were riding along at a nice leisurely pace behind him when he got a call that his wife who lives in Kuala Lumpur was at his house and he had to turn around and go home. With some parting instructions on which way to go, and some final photos, he was gone.

It seems we've finally worked out a system of riding so that we both take turns at the front. (Although Sam still a lot more than Shanna) It was timely that we'd worked this out, because it was a difficult day with headwinds. It was also mentally tiring, as halfway through the day we realised the GPS had taken us away from the route David had recommended, and as a result we were riding much further than we needed to. When we thought we were so close to Thailand, it was difficult with tired aching legs, groaning sick stomachs and sore knees to accept that we now had further to go.

We stopped for some long breaks to rest our tired bodies and in the mid-afternoon, when the lightening and thunder started and a few drops started to fall, we gave up our plans of riding 100km for the day and looked for a hotel.