We were on the road just before six o'clock and encountered rain almost immediately. The rain, and a fresh headwind, would continue for most of the the day's ride. I guess we can count ourselves very lucky that we have had so little rain on this trip so far. We hadn't even brought any rain gear with us. Fortuitously we had bought some cheap rain ponchos in Da Lat a few days earlier so we hauled them out and had them on for most of the ride

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We knew we had a longish day ahead of us so we had organised a packed breakfast the day before. This, along with the fact that it was much cooler than any day we have had so far, meant that food and drink stops were kept to a minimum. However, we did have a few other delays. One was getting a bit lost looking for the Co-op Mart in Bao Loc. The other was slightly more stressful.

Passing through a village a few kilometers before Bao Loc, I noticed an ATM outside a BIDV Bank. After going through the process to draw money, it came up with a message saying thst my card was "hot" and was being retained. Thank goodness the ATM was at the bank. One of the staff opened the ATM and returned my card and asked me to repeat the process. Of course my card was swallowed again. At this stage I wasn't sure if there was a problem with card or if BIDV's software just did dumb things if it couldn't communicate with the client bank so I was quite stressed (although I carry a number of cards, stashed in different places, as insurance). I knew that Asian Commercial Bank did work with my cards and on our way out of Bao Loc I spotted an ACB Bank and drew enough cash to make myself feel more secure.

Descending the pass in the rain and mist wasn’t the most pleasant part of the day. Our hands were exhausted from hanging onto our brakes by the time we got to the bottom. At the bottom we pulled into one of the large bus rest areas and had a really good lunch of com xao thit (rice with sautéed meat and vegetables), a bowl of soup and a big mug of iced Vietnamese tea.

Talking of tea, Vietnam is the only place apart from Turkey where I have been given a complimentary cup of tea with my beer.

The rain held off mostly after our lunch and the last 15 kilometers in particular was most enjoyable on quiet country roads. As we entered the village at Cat Tien we spotted a Red-breasted Parakeet - a lifer is a great way to end a ride.

We are spending 2 nights at Green Bamboo Lodge right next to the Cat Tien National Park gate.