Today we had our first encounter of the live, slithering kind and proved that it is possible to fall asleep on a bike! We set off from Siem Reap shortly after 6am to cover the 103km to Sisophon. The road conditions were perfect - flat and smooth. Despite this, it was a pretty gruelling journey as we had head wind for much of the way and by midday the temperature had already reached 45 degrees and we were still 20km out from our destination.
(Leaving Siem Reap)
The scenery for much of the journey was a little uninspiring with parched, brown fields every where we looked. The flat, barren landscape provided little in the way of shade so we were happy to take shelter at a little road side kitchen where we stopped for an early lunch.
At one point in our journey, Paul's gaze fell on, what he thought, was a long green reed or leaf on the road until he rolled over it and realised it was a snake. He yelped and Nicky's knees shot up over her handle bars as she cycled past the snake which was slithering off into the bush beside us.
(Dry, dusty fields on the road to Sisophon)
The final 20km were a real challenge and Nicky nearly succumbed to sleep, nodding off for a second while still pedalling. Thankfully, Tim and Tina had recommended a nice hotel in Sisophon so we didn't have to look far when we arrived into town. Not our longest day but certainly one of our toughest.
(Along the road, we spotted this colourful archway leading off to a temple)
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