Mondulkiri road trip with the Van de Waals - part 3

Beate and Williem looking good in their wet weather gear...

Safety first.

The Nature Lodge - all wooden tree house like, we had our own little wooden cabins with open air bathrooms - lovely.

Queenie obviously came with us for the ride.

We had planned to visit a few of the waterfalls around the town and go off road however due to the rain it was hard enough just getting along the 1km mud track to the Nature Lodge so unfortunately we only made it to one waterfall.

Mondulkiri road trip with the Van de Waals - Part 2

So into the mountains we go -  the roads were empty and rising up into the forest with all the mist and steam from the rain was fantastic. Then we suddenly realised how much cooler it was - bliss....

Me on the open road.....

Considering that central Cambodia is so low & flat including Kampong Cham, it was lovely to see some depth in the landscape with rolling hills.

A weary and cold Jane at the end of a 8 hour road trip - I slept well that night.

Mondulkiri road trip with the Van de Waals - Part 1

It was the King's mothers birthday the other weekend which meant that we had a day off on the Monday, so I decided to go on a bit of a road trip on a motorbike and Beate & Williem came along for the ride as well.
We set off from Kampong Cham at 8.45am, was meant to be 8am but we got waylaid by a coffee, anyway off we went and guess what within 30 mins we were in a repair shop as Williem's brakes weren't working. Now considering we were going up into the mountains and not staying on the flat plains we decided that it was wise to get these fixed, luckily every 10 meters in Cambodia there is someone who knows how to fix a bike.

So we made it out of Kampong Cham to Mamot where we stopped for a coffee and some noodles and more importantly a look at the map - you know me always have a map close by.

So our destination was Mondulkiri in the mountains - 250km away right on the border with Vietnam.

So when we set off it was a nice sunny day, slightly overcast which was good for being on the bikes as too much sun is a nightmare, however this was not to last..... in fact for the next 3 days it pretty much rained all the time but we took it in our stride and laughed a lot about it. Once we realised that we were going to be damp or soaked most of the time it became fun - honestly.
So the first rain hit us just outside of Snoul and what a storm it was - driving a motorbike through lashing rain, thunder and lightening is quite an experience - especially when you only have the local raincoats (coloured bin bags) for protection - as you can see they don't last that long - so I gave up in wearing one after the first hour..

Stopped for a refuel just before we hit the road heading up through the forest, think Williem was a bit tired or maybe just bored of my waffling by then....

Back on the bikes again - we all had a bike each, usually the Van de Waals would share but they thought that their bike wouldn't cope with the mountain passes with both of them on it.

We weren't going to let a little rain get out spirits down - smiling all the way.

Refueling as from here on in until Sen Monorom there were no fuel stops but many hills..................