I thought lunch would lift our spirits, but instead I found Shaq giving me the cold shoulder for the next two hours just trying to keep warm and getting more nature valley bars into his stomach to avoid bonking as were merely at the halfway point. The views continue to be incredible but the fatigue in our legs start to creep in, and this was the case for the entire day. We rode past villages with kids running around and playing with each other, mobile phones absent, karaoke sessions were a certainty in most towns along the way.
As we rode up the infamous Ma Pi Leng Pass switchbacks and summit Meo Vac, we were greeted by a group of tourists; pillion riders on motorbikes piloted by the locals as part of a group tour one can take - which does the Hà Giang Loop in 3-5 days, at a leisurely pace and at times we wished we were doing that instead. Spirits however were lifted with the constant waves from the locals and the kids, most letting out a scream of disbelief that we’re cycling up these passes instead of being on a moped.
It was up, down, up and down all day - even the ‘descend’ into town wasn't quite as promised on paper with a few proper bumps, some on completely unpaved roads. We knew we had to make the most out of it before the sun went down at 5:30PM, and we got motoring - with 200 km and 6000m of climbing done by the time it got dark, and it was just survival mode from there. With the most I’ve climbed before this in one ride was less than half of the elevation of this - the Taiwan KOM, so this was going into completely uncharted territories.
