Well, I guess it's what you get when you don't think too much about your plan... When you cycle northeast along the coast, during the northeast monsoon, you get... headwind! Yesterday we had a lot of headwind - not breeze, but wind. It was a tough 94km day. Today, we had 54km of STRONG headwind - at times coming close to gale force or at least that is how it felt. We were pretty exhausted yesterday after 94km; we were as exhausted today after 54km...
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| More colorful coracles, they're everywhere in Vietnam! |
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| Strong winds over the ocean, and along the coast... (courtesy of Windy.com) |
The last cycling post I published, we were still in Phan Thiet. From there, we had a short day to Mui Ne; not the main Mui Ne beach area, but a bit further at Long Son beach. Mui Ne itself was not our cup of tea. Too touristy, too artificial; not too bad, just not our thing. At Long Son however we really liked it, and we stayed 2 nights as we wanted to have a day "off". We found very nice and affordable food, with English menu's (that's an advantage of staying in a more tourist oriented place), and even a really nice coffee! Also here, there were a lot of Russians - I didn't realize Vietnam was such a Russian vacation destination. Our day was totally chill, very nice. The weather was still not so good, overcast, not so warm (nice!), windy and some rain here and there. It seems there is very bad weather further up north, around Nha Trang - where we are heading in the next few days.
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| Visiting some cham towers just outside of Phan Thiet |
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| Lovely juices in Mui Ne. About the plastic straws... Very very difficult to avoid in Vietnam... |
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| Fishing boats and coracles near Mui Ne |
From Mui Ne we had a nice day to Ca Na, although it was a tough day. We passed the famous Mui Ne white dunes; they were not so white (after the rain, I guess) and a big tourist trap. Further down the road there were a lot of other beautiful dunes, less the crowds and jeeps. We got to Ca Na just before dark, after a windy day with quite a few hills in it too. It had been a beautiful day however, the best so far (until see further), except for the last 20-something km on the highway 1 - beautiful scenery with scenic mountains, if you could look beyond the traffic (with the loudest horns), the rubbish, the mess, the power plants, ... We were very happy to arrive, checked in without any hesitation, took a lovely shower, and ate a huge dinner; I seemed completely starved and insatiable. Our room, in a small bungalow, was right at the sea, with big waves because of the strong wind. The water was even splashing into the restaurant - not up to our bungalow luckily.
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| A huge boulevard from Mui Ne, passing the sand dunes, with hardly any traffic on it - perfect for cycling! |
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| Taking a short break on one of the sand dunes - this one really white. |
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| No need to explain... |
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| Relaxed cycling, nice road, nice scenery, no traffic on on this stretch a bit less wind - because it was more sheltered |
From Ca Na, you can take the AH1 (highway) further up north, or follow a very scenic coastal road. Obviously we wanted to take the coastal road, however it adds more than 15km to the journey, and the weather (wind!) would definitely be less forgiving on that stretch. We still decided to go for it, and yes we have had a lot of very strong wind, and luckily no rain; it was a fantastic ride! It was definitely, by far, the most beautiful part since we're at the coast and one of the best days of this entire trip. It started by almost being blown of our bicycles, we then had about 10km of incredibly beautiful, hilly coastal road, with the wind slightly in our advantage, then 10km of that same beautiful road but with a lot of heavy winds and wind gusts, and then... almost 30km of nice road - less beautiful but still nice - with the wind head on, constant, relentless, strong. It was physically and mentally heavy, but we knew where we would end for the day, and it was a good challenge... We arrived early afternoon in Phan Rang, and are enjoying a lazy rest of the day. Phan Rang is in fact a surprisingly nice town, with a lot of tourist infrastructure, but not that many tourists. It's pleasant, has a nice beach, and very nice to spend some time - all really better than Mui Ne, no doubt. The weather is still a bit wild, so let's see what happens next...
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| Leaving Ca Na, yet another huge boulevard without traffic |
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| After the first climb, at a small rest area |
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| No complaints about the scenery! |
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| Fantastic coastal road, in perfect condition, and no traffic! |
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| Breathtaking! The "haze" in the back is actually sand being blown up by the wind; we had a free peeling today (I'd rather say we got sandblasted) |
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| Cycling makes you very strong!!! |
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| More dune scenery, almost desert-like |
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| And another boulevard without traffic! |
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| Sahara or Atacama? |
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| We saw the first renewable energy installation since we came to Vietnam today, a few dozens of wind turbines. They were still partly under construction, those that were finished were not in operation due to the strong winds I guess. Vietnam has around 40% renewable energy sources, but more than 38% of this is hydroelectricity. In 2016, only 0.4% of the electricity came from wind, solar and biomass. This installation (much bigger than in this picture) is a good step forward... |
