Day 4 - The Casualty List Mounts

Day 4  - From somewhere in the jungle to somewhere else and ending up back at the Bungalows.

First light came and went. After a wild night of gorging, rooting and reproducing the insects that lived in our mattresses were highly disappointed to feel their temporary occupant and food source leap out of bed and head down to the breakfast restaurant. Surprisingly Hayda was first down there which enabled him to have some quality 1-on-1 time with the 3 toed, grass chewing, machete wielding maître d’ of the establishment. Following some rudimentary banter, which resulted in the offering of some of the grass to chew, Hayda, was proudly presented with the Thai Version of a Full English.

Interestingly it was the first meal for 48 hours that did not consist of Pad Thai and bits of pig but was in fact  œufs brouillés dans le pain blanc served avec sauce tomate. Given the exertions of the night day before the team one-by-one mowed down the meal as they arrived at the breakfast suite. Interestingly no one else took up the offer of the “chewing grass” a mistake, which could, but didn’t, prove costly.

After breakfast the team set off again on the burning hot trails. The heat and frequent water /cigarette stops on that 2^nd morning began to merge into one as that wicked lady that is the Coast to Coast Tour began to claim its first victims.

Victim1 – Jam Boy (as he was later to be know) while speeding through the undulations of a palm oil plantation hit a down slope too fast and plugged the front wheel into the up slope, forming the front wheel into the perfect pivot point. The front remained steadfast while JB and the bike rotated around it and deposited him and the bike into an elegant sweaty heap on the jungle floor.  Sadly only Hayda was behind JB at this stage to witness the carnage but even sadder he was so far behind that he missed it all and almost rode into the stricken Cupcake as he lay bleeding amongst the ants.  Surprisingly, sympathy was scant on the ground, as hilarity broke out when the full extent of the pain was established.

Probably looked a lot worse than it actually was.

Victim 2 – Hayda – (soon to be know as the Chair-man due to his liking for the support truck). After battling sickness, dehydration, fatigue, sickness, Dutch elm disease and sickness at 11.22am Hayda stepped off the bike and climbed into the bus of shame. His dignity in ruins.

Victim 3 DK – at 12.45pm, aka Lunch time. Due to the fact that he wasn’t the first to do so, David followed the Chair-man’s initiative and stepped off the bike and boarded the bus of shame.

Due to our poorly state Moo sourced us some snacks to enjoy in the support bus.

To be frank, not really sure what happened the rest of the afternoon but DK and I did enjoy a fabulous bottle of Chablis and some wonderful barbecued lobster in the bus while the others toiled in the heat. If we were to lose our dignity we were dam sure we were going to have a swinging time doing so.

Mark modelling his King of the Mountains shirt he had awarded himself before we had got to any mountains. It was to prove a premature move.

There were some unsubstantiated rumours of a “nasty climb” late in the day and GG losing his temper at the top but David and I were pretty confident this was invented to give the remaining cupcakes some Kudos and make us feel bad. Either way, at close of play the team reassembled at the now infamous Bungalows and took advantage of the services of some local massage ladies (hastily organised by the ever resourceful Moo) and had our aching muscles soothed and manipulated in the privacy of our pest ridden, pine clad, individual rooms.

In rural Thailand the Thai Disco we went to looked absolutely nothing like this at all.

That night we again searched high and low for local nightlife, managed to load up on some more Pad Thai and replenish our depleted hydration levels with some local beer.  A Thai disco followed before carriages.

Things we learned today:

1. Pad Thai can get repetitive
2. Mark is the Queen of the Mountains
3. Magic Adam and Jam Boy are actually quite good at cycling.
4. Moo can fix anything. I mean, anything.
5. The Support Bus is your friend.