South Of Mae Sot On A Hazy Day

[Captain_Slash]

The Route 1090, 4019, 4014, 4008, 3059

Total Distance 134 km

A shot of the Moei from along the 3059

Now riding on the 4019

I ride the roads near to the Burmese border and at N16.34.286 E098.35.114 the road turns to unpaved and goes down to the Moei

Some cross over by boat

I thought I would pick one of these up to see how heavy it was, I soon gave up on that idea

This guy walked over

I ride back to the paved surface then the unpaved starts again at N16.34.503 E098.35.695

I rode through that, the heat was unpleasant and the smoke even more so but I wanted to get to the top of the hill to see if it was a good view or not

The view from the top wasnt so special and the Moei is hardly visible through the haze

Theres fires galore out here now and a heavy nights rainfall wouldnt go amiss

Time to fry up some tomatoes

A small shop out here on the dusty track but no fuel sold here

Plenty of kids here playing near the water

I ride close to the Moei a few times this morning following various tracks

While I am glad to be riding on a dry track this would have looked so much better three months ago

I ride south alongside the Moei and happen upon the newish shelter, I have rode off the ESRI map now but if I follow the Moei for long enough I will get back to an asphalt road

This lad gets out from the Moei and tells me the track finishes just past here

He was right, about 400 metres more and the track finishes, its not the fallen tree that halts progress but the large rocks just past it, not even a walking track now so its time to ride back

I try a couple more side tracks but everything turns to a dead end

After 25.2 km of dirt its back to paved

I spend the rest of an extremely hot day riding on asphalt, the temperature has really warmed up here over the last week, no cold starts in the morning now

Two large Cumberland sausages, double chips and onions at Krua Canadian for 140 Baht, truly lovely too

You can get the gdb file from my website here … http://www.captainslash.com

 

[Ally]

Since my ride Tuesday I have been humming a Julie Andrews song... just cannot get it out of my head!

The hills are on fire and my eyes are burning
Last year was the same as each year gone by
The hills are on fire and my throat is sore now
The ground is all black and my lungs are tooo

I guess you will be doing the same now !

hil

Ally

 

[Captain_Slash]

Now is a great time to be riding in the Yala and Narathiwat provinces, only greenery down there, no fires at all

 

[KTMphil]

Looking at your tracks, it looks like there's a ton of exploring to do around the border area in small villages, looks great fun. We'll get this up on Auke's North Thailand map, very unique data, nice job Colin.

 

[Lone Rider]

It is in the map (just finished it an hour ago) as well as all the other tracks I had "in stock" waiting to be added to the Map (North of Pai trails, east and west of the 105, etc.). Compiling now and the map should be ready later to day bot for the GPS as wll as Mapsource/BaseCamp.

 

[Captain_Slash]

Phil theres loads of tracks here going in all directions, it isnt until after I have posted the report and viewing the google earth map on my own website that I see where I could have joined some tracks up.

Auke next trip will be easier then as the map will have all these tracks on it