Vietnam Mountains - High n Dry

Ha Giang Province - Vietnam Having set off on an overnight train from Hanoi we made our way to Sapa where we met our guide, Hung. The next 5 days we rode all sorts of wonderful countryside and met amazingly generous and happy locals before riding back to Hanoi. This video clip shows a flavour of mountain trail that we experienced. Towards the end of the clip we start the decent but unfortunately the thicker canopy meant that the soil had retained a lot of moisture rendering conditions particularly difficult for the big heavy Dommie that was on very road biased tyres. We spent 3 hours tackling this type of terrain following the end of this clip and ended up, exhausted (mentally as well as physically) and injured. I ride the AMAZING Honda CRF250L, the only bike fitted with sturdy metal framed panniers....which were to become my downfall. A few hundred metres from our overnight homestay and whilst travelling at the rear my inner pannier caught a rock (lack of awareness due to tiredness) and as I stretched out an opposite foot to balance myself I found no resistance. I tumbled down the side of the mountainside rapidly followed by the motorbike. The rest is history as they say.....Vietnamese farmers coming to the rescue, chopping down bamboo and roping the bike up the side along the Bamboo skids. A bust thumb, damaged ankle/leg ligaments, cracked nose meant I got away lightly but the worst thing is that the camera battery had died! Still.....better to have done than not. The bike started first time despite the 40-50ft drop and all that was broken were mirrors. I think the repair bill was about £20! Will get more footage up soon, only taken 5 months to do this.