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19 NOVEMBER 2013 - CHROK CHONG OURET TO BATTAMBANG: 105KM

True to form, the indigenous wake-up calls continued.   Having unknowingly set our tents squarely in the middle of a barnyard, we awoke with a menagerie in our midst; one that cockle-doodle-doo-ed, crowed and grunted throughout the night and into the dawn.  And as the rain poured down during the early morning hours, ee prepared to reunite with Sam.  When Sam arrived, we celebrated by circling the wagons and calling to order a major routine re-evaluation.   The rains had worsened our course to the point where continuing on was called into question. However, after a laborious debate, the group decided to proceed forward and stay with the previously planned routing.

A mere 150m after we enacted this plan, we came upon a newly-formed pond that made our pass untenable.  Forced to call an audible, we needed to about-face.  Our only option was to retreat and face the terrain that we had painstakingly covered the day before (!@#$%).

The Devil That You Know

We set out to cross the very same terrain that we had suffered through -- and conquered -- the day before.

Tackling it on foot, the crew made a rare appearance on the trail and kept stride with Sam, walking along side him during this 8-hour retrace.  The rivers and gullies swelled with new rainwater, enveloping our lower halves as we plodded through the wetlands.

We had a brief moment of respite, fresh water and a brief lunch at Kampong Lapov before we made our way back to navigable roads.  Sam was hungry to make up for lost mileage and hit the road hard, riding 80km and running a total of 26km, wrapping up today’s mileage at 105km.

The team beds down in Battambang (again) and recalibrates for the long journey south to Sihanoukville that begins in the morning.

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- Meghan Shea