After thrahsing about the offroad trails with Frank, Harri, and Jim for a couple weeks I began to realize that Frank had a revered ability to inhale Jack Daniels at an alarming rate and yet be ready to ride the morning after. Much respect. After returning from the trip Frank began the uneviable task of trying to sort some video of the trip. It was his first time ever trying to do this and neither of us had bugger all confidence in what would come out of his efforts. Against all odds it seems Frank has a talent other than keeping the market share of Jack Daniels strong.
Well here it is, his foray into topping Francis Ford Coppala. This is footage from the first day where we left Huay Xai and proceeded instead of the usual route along to Pak Beng we stayed tight against the Mekong. The usual track to Pak beng follows the Nam Tha river northEast and heads inland in order to get to Pak beng, at this juncture we continued following along the Mekong instead. At one point the track ended and we ended up having to load the bikes onto a fast boat and take the boat about 8 KM's down the mekong to hook up with a track on the South side of the river. We then took this track offroad through the mountains to come out about 15 KM north of Mueng Nguen. A nice change from the usual Huay Xai to Pak beng slog and avoids the tarmac from Pak Beng to Mueng Nguen.
The track on the north side of the Mekong was enjoyable but the track on the south side of the mekong that we did turned out to be a maojor dirt road and too developed. next time we'll look for a more rural way to Mueng Nguen.
This is some raw footage Frank took of that day and whittled together a video
Well here it is, his foray into topping Francis Ford Coppala. This is footage from the first day where we left Huay Xai and proceeded instead of the usual route along to Pak Beng we stayed tight against the Mekong. The usual track to Pak beng follows the Nam Tha river northEast and heads inland in order to get to Pak beng, at this juncture we continued following along the Mekong instead. At one point the track ended and we ended up having to load the bikes onto a fast boat and take the boat about 8 KM's down the mekong to hook up with a track on the South side of the river. We then took this track offroad through the mountains to come out about 15 KM north of Mueng Nguen. A nice change from the usual Huay Xai to Pak beng slog and avoids the tarmac from Pak Beng to Mueng Nguen.
The track on the north side of the Mekong was enjoyable but the track on the south side of the mekong that we did turned out to be a maojor dirt road and too developed. next time we'll look for a more rural way to Mueng Nguen.
This is some raw footage Frank took of that day and whittled together a video