We’ve done it!  The 4th Truants Ride is complete, and takes us way past the £1m mark raised for our 3 wonderful children’s charities.  In reaching that milestone, we’ve discovered another remarkable country via it’s farm tracks and back roads and found a beautiful people whose seemingly universal first instinct is to smile, despite their hideous recent national history.

Because the genocidal sequence of events, that started as the Vietnam War ended, lasted so long, there are few Cambodians much older than 30 left alive.  Unbelievably, as we learned on our rest stop at the Landmine Museum, the pain continues indefinitely, with many millions (yes millions) of mines and unexploded bombs still lying in wait for the unsuspecting child, they are strewn across the country, in jungles and on little used dirt tracks. Still blowing people apart.  Whilst we learned of ongoing corruption and generally poor government, we also saw an entrepreneurial people and economy headed in the right direction and it seemed to us that the new young Cambodia has a great future.  Their vast ancient temples reveal that they have been a great civilisation and society before and, though their population has been decimated, the land is fertile, and their culture welcoming and honest.  You should go and see it for yourself, it’s beautiful.

 

 

 

For our part, whenever we were not peddling away, we did absolutely all we could to support the local economy.

 

 Our 3 days in the saddle took us through the morning traffic of Siem Reap, on out amidst the tuk-tuks, mopeds and tourist traffic to the temples of Angkor Wat, where we would break to rest up a bit, by climbing innumerable vertiginous stone stairways built, as ever, to get closer to ancient gods.  The sheer scale of the temples is awe inspiring and quite difficult to take on board, not least the condition of them after spending close on a thousand years buried in the jungle. However most of our 3 days cycling was spent winding through mile upon mile of rice paddies on farmer’s paths and deeply rutted dirt roads, then the odd 12 mile stretch of perfect tarmac, which, sod’s law, arrived at the same time as a blazing sun and strong headwind.  Our developing skills as ‘pelotonniers’ helped us get through that bit, though when on sandy tracks atop rice-paddy dykes, we worked out that it’s best to stay well clear of each other and let the fallers fall, without you then riding over them.

 

 Rough roads go with rural beauty and as the miles and the pain mounted day by day, so the roads got worse and worse, ending with a long stretch of rutted mud to ensure we felt we have given our sponsors plenty of suffering .

 

That said, there was always something beautiful or fascinating to break up the tedium of grinding out the miles, for example a school where the 10 year olds were learning English, so we took an impromptu class, encouraged by the staff and to the huge amusement of the kids who had surely never seen anything quite like us before! Exploring incredible floating villages, each (substantial) one-room home towering 20 feet or more up in the air atop a forest of 2 story wooden poles.  The fishermen’s way of life is shaped by the 3 metre rise in the floodwaters in the rainy season, they descend down long flights of steps to patrol the mangrove swamps in ancient, leaky, but indestructible teak-built long boats, mend their nets and occasionally wave to the tourists whose lives could not be more different to theirs. 

 

On our return to base we had plenty of chance to relax in the back-packer heaven that is Siem Reap city, where we routinely made the next days’ cycling far harder, by enjoying each other’s company far too long into the night

 

 

 

So for the pain we have no-one to blame but ourselves, and while of course we cover all our own costs, it’s YOU we have to thank for the gain. We know that we can only do the good we do because of your response to our call, every 18 months or so.  What motivates us is the causes we serve and your amazing generosity.  We’ll keep it up as long as you do!

 

 

 

Thank you so very much. 

 

 Malcolm & Amanda