The final day has come, 70K of cycling planned, on road, off road, through the jungle, deep puddles and sand!
Today was always going to be a special day because it would be the last time we, as a team, get to cycle together on the awesome trip, that has seen, so many ups and downs, but has always been brilliant, we had no idea what to expect and as always, it was a day to remember.
The usual strict 6am breakfast (shouldn't have stayed up late last night!!!!!!), the coach, took us to the edge of of the Jungle and we got to cycle through it, to get us to the famous Jungle Temple, as seen in Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones
After a quick water break and when I say water, i mean one or two fell in a massive puddle, trying to get through, that gave everyone some fantastic photos or video, we then got to the official water stop, parked our bikes and headed off, with our guides to the temple
And to say the temple is breathtaking, would be an understatement
Once we left the Jungle Temple, it was all about the cycling, much of which was on single track sand, something many people were not used to and we had quite a few falls and no one got hurt, they were more of tips than falls, we were heading for the finish line, something we only dreamed about when we got here on our first day, back in Ho Chi Minh City, before we became 'Team Extreme'
This was the first day, my camera battery seemed to drain really fast and the first day i forgot to bring a spare, so i decided the important thing now was the finish photos.
During the previous evening some of the team had come up with a brilliant way of raising extra money for Alzheimers by staging a 'filmed' race between a selected number of people from all levels of cycling and two places were left unfilled, so that you could bid money for a place, it was decided between a few of us that we would also 'pool' our bids to get Andy (group leaded) in the race, so when the announcement was made, one very generous bid of $100 was made, plus another $250 for Andy to race (he kindly added another $25), but this was to be no ordinary race (why would we ever think otherwise), this was to be a handicap 400 metre sprint, between some very, very good cyclist and a load of us, one of the cyclists was Mr Lucky, one of the crew and one of the best cyclists in Cambodia, but 400 meters in 1st gear, makes it a very funny race, it was like extreme spinning in 40 degrees! But Mr Lucky spun to victory.
After that it was, 14K to the finish, I set off with one of the leaders (Cambodia's number 2 cyclist) and 3 of the others and boy did we push it hard for the full 13K.
With only 1K to go we all got together whilst the leaders went on to put up the banner, girls in the front, boys at the back so we could all cycle in together for one last time and with the exception of one crash between a number of the girls, we all crossed the line as the team we had become.
And the tears flowed, the hugs started and we were the happiest bunch in Cambodia, we had just completed a epic journey, through two beautiful countries and between us, raised over £100,000 for Alzheimers
So that was that, some of us headed back to the hotel to chill, some went to another temple and we all met up later for a party and boy did we party!
But that wasn't the end of the night, we were up, it was late, sunrise would be in a couple of hours and where best to see it other than at the Angkor Wat Temples, so we hired tut tut's and headed off to sit with hundreds of people and just watch
V2C2012
Saturday 10 November 2012
Cambodia Day 3, Angkor Wat
Yesterday was a day which tested each and everyone of us, both mentally and physically, but it was also a day that made us stronger as a team and gave us the believe, that we could get through this, but the challenge would not be over until, the last person crossed that line in Siem Reap.
Breakfast was slighty later, as we would be jumping on the coach to take us up the road to a road side cafe where we ate last night, not a great place, which also went for the hotel we slept in last night, but we all decided, it was the kind of place we thought we would be in every night, basically we had been spoiled!
Today would be a chance to rest our legs, catch some rays and as always, see some amazing sights.
One we left breakfast we headed for the harbour to catch a boat that would take us over the largest expance of fresh water in south asia for 4hrs, we got there early enough to wander about, look at the local food market and meet some more of this countries wonderful kids and little did we know the wonders that would await us the other side (the 8th wonder to be precise) Angkor Wat!!!
The boat trip, was fast, hot, cramped, but you could walk about the outside of the boat and sunbathe up on top!
On our arrival we headed to the coach that took us to our bikes, we were only cycling 10K maximum today, but wow, what a 10K it would be, once we got to Angkor Wat we had to get photo passes, which would allow us access to Angkor and all its temples. We started out cycling through the beautiful tree lined roads, along with the cars, cycles and of course tuc tuc's which buzz about everywhere in asia, as always we kept stopping wherever and whenever we wanted for photos, but for the first time we were asked not to, as there would be plenty of chances to take photos and we were on a tight deadline to get in to the 2 temples, but when i saw my first elephant carrying people, i had to take my chances although i did ride straight past the monkeys
We finished the day off by watching the sun set from within the temple grounds, before being transfered to our hotel, which will be our home for 2 nights
We finished the day by going out to eat at what i can only describe as a tree house, then on to Pub Street for a well earned drink
Breakfast was slighty later, as we would be jumping on the coach to take us up the road to a road side cafe where we ate last night, not a great place, which also went for the hotel we slept in last night, but we all decided, it was the kind of place we thought we would be in every night, basically we had been spoiled!
Today would be a chance to rest our legs, catch some rays and as always, see some amazing sights.
One we left breakfast we headed for the harbour to catch a boat that would take us over the largest expance of fresh water in south asia for 4hrs, we got there early enough to wander about, look at the local food market and meet some more of this countries wonderful kids and little did we know the wonders that would await us the other side (the 8th wonder to be precise) Angkor Wat!!!
The boat trip, was fast, hot, cramped, but you could walk about the outside of the boat and sunbathe up on top!
On our arrival we headed to the coach that took us to our bikes, we were only cycling 10K maximum today, but wow, what a 10K it would be, once we got to Angkor Wat we had to get photo passes, which would allow us access to Angkor and all its temples. We started out cycling through the beautiful tree lined roads, along with the cars, cycles and of course tuc tuc's which buzz about everywhere in asia, as always we kept stopping wherever and whenever we wanted for photos, but for the first time we were asked not to, as there would be plenty of chances to take photos and we were on a tight deadline to get in to the 2 temples, but when i saw my first elephant carrying people, i had to take my chances although i did ride straight past the monkeys
We finished the day off by watching the sun set from within the temple grounds, before being transfered to our hotel, which will be our home for 2 nights
We finished the day by going out to eat at what i can only describe as a tree house, then on to Pub Street for a well earned drink
Cambodia Day 3, Angkor Wat
Yesterday was a day which tested each and everyone of us, both mentally and physically, but it was also a day that made us stronger as a team and gave us the believe, that we could get through this, but the challenge would not be over until, the last person crossed that line in Siem Reap.
Breakfast was slighty later, as we would be jumping on the coach to take us up the road to a road side cafe where we ate last night, not a great place, which also went for the hotel we slept in last night, but we all decided, it was the kind of place we thought we would be in every night, basically we had been spoiled!
Today would be a chance to rest our legs, catch some rays and as always, see some amazing sights.
One we left breakfast we headed for the harbour to catch a boat that would take us over the largest expance of fresh water in south asia for 4hrs, we got there early enough to wander about, look at the local food market and meet some more of this countries wonderful kids and little did we know the wonders that would await us the other side (the 8th wonder to be precise) Angkor Wat!!!
The boat trip, was fast, hot, cramped, but you could walk about the outside of the boat and sunbathe up on top!
On our arrival we headed to the coach that took us to our bikes, we were only cycling 10K maximum today, but wow, what a 10K it would be, once we got to Angkor Wat we had to get photo passes, which would allow us access to Angkor and all its temples. We started out cycling through the beautiful tree lined roads, along with the cars, cycles and of course tuc tuc's which buzz about everywhere in asia, as always we kept stopping wherever and whenever we wanted for photos, but for the first time we were asked not to, as there would be plenty of chances to take photos and we were on a tight deadline to get in to the 2 temples, but when i saw my first elephant carrying people, i had to take my chances although i did ride straight past the monkeys
We finished the day off by watching the sun set from within the temple grounds, before being transfered to our hotel, which will be our home for 2 nights
We finished the day by going out to eat at what i can only describe as a tree house, then on to Pub Street for a well earned drink
Breakfast was slighty later, as we would be jumping on the coach to take us up the road to a road side cafe where we ate last night, not a great place, which also went for the hotel we slept in last night, but we all decided, it was the kind of place we thought we would be in every night, basically we had been spoiled!
Today would be a chance to rest our legs, catch some rays and as always, see some amazing sights.
One we left breakfast we headed for the harbour to catch a boat that would take us over the largest expance of fresh water in south asia for 4hrs, we got there early enough to wander about, look at the local food market and meet some more of this countries wonderful kids and little did we know the wonders that would await us the other side (the 8th wonder to be precise) Angkor Wat!!!
The boat trip, was fast, hot, cramped, but you could walk about the outside of the boat and sunbathe up on top!
On our arrival we headed to the coach that took us to our bikes, we were only cycling 10K maximum today, but wow, what a 10K it would be, once we got to Angkor Wat we had to get photo passes, which would allow us access to Angkor and all its temples. We started out cycling through the beautiful tree lined roads, along with the cars, cycles and of course tuc tuc's which buzz about everywhere in asia, as always we kept stopping wherever and whenever we wanted for photos, but for the first time we were asked not to, as there would be plenty of chances to take photos and we were on a tight deadline to get in to the 2 temples, but when i saw my first elephant carrying people, i had to take my chances although i did ride straight past the monkeys
We finished the day off by watching the sun set from within the temple grounds, before being transfered to our hotel, which will be our home for 2 nights
We finished the day by going out to eat at what i can only describe as a tree house, then on to Pub Street for a well earned drink
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