REVISITED - The Missing Link- Sangkhlaburi to Umphang - Myanmar border jungle trail

[KTMphil]

A flat bit for a change

Into the 7-11 for a drink

We decide to sleep near the waterfall, there's an ideal building for groups to sleep

 

[KTMphil]

Jack's friend that runs the clinic for tribal people with no ID cards

 

[KTMphil]

Before dark still time for a shower in the waterfall, the hydro on the way down is interesting

Beautiful walk down to the waterfall'

& back up just in time to catch the last of the sun

 

[KTMphil]

Roof making at sunset

Nearly sleep time

Jack chilly, looks like he'll sleep in his RideAsia.net riding shirt (he'll have to clean it quick ready for next week)

 

[KTMphil]

......lots more to come.

 

[KTMphil]

Up early and the Karen locals are curious about what we ride

Freezing morning, a bit of choke and the 300 EXC 2 stroke starts 1st time with a puff of blue smoke

Bob's dunking seems to have got into his electrics, one bump start and everything is warmed up and ok again

Bigfella's bike won't start either, Pounce gets it going with a kick

 

[KTMphil]

Back to the Le Tong Khu village for some noodles

 

[KTMphil]

Pounce

Le Tong Khu local dealing with the beetle nut harvest

The beautiful soup lady

 

[KTMphil]

Le Tong Khu

 

[marcusb]

Wow! Great photos!! Fantastic trip so far!

 

[KTMphil]

Thanks Mark, more to come...............

 

[yychow0812]

Absolutely fab pics Phil!!! By the way, Merry Christmas!!

 

[MastaMax]

Great trip and great pictures, I'll definitely do it some day when the timing is right.

Phil, do you have those RideAsia riding shirts in different colours?

 

[KTMphil]

Great trip and great pictures, I'll definitely do it some day when the timing is right.

Phil, do you have those RideAsia riding shirts in different colours?

PM bsacbob, he's handling the shirt production I think

 

[KTMphil]

Interesting, presumably Tibetan scripture in the Le Tong Khu village

Time to get going, top up with bottles of fuel. 3 of the boys were headed north to Umpang, the rest of us would give it a shot to get back through to Sanghlaburi in one day

 

[KTMphil]

Being the first group through this year, you get to be the hedge cutters for the next group making it easier for them

Xmas lunch in the jungle villages pork fat that looked very much like fried potatoes

Fascination from the Karen locals

 

[KTMphil]

Back down to the Suriya River and the 50/ 50 luck is against us, the raft's on the wrong side again

Time for a swim

 

[KTMphil]

Reverse the route and back into Myanmar we go

.................more to come.

 

[The Bigfella]

Keep 'em coming Phil. I finally sorted out the photomerge of our bathtub at the second village. That's it bottom left

 

[bigntall]

Phil the trip looks a hoot. Thanks for all the hedge trimming as I'll be doing the track in a few days . Hopefully you gents dried up any remaining slick wet clay and moved all the rocks out of the river crossings.

Your picture taking has improved by leaps and bounds with some great shots being produced and more natural looking colors. Awesome.

Max - Phil has got KTM orange shirts being produced, I have one version and the XL fits me so size accordingly.

 

[KTMphil]

Phil the trip looks a hoot. Thanks for all the hedge trimming as I'll be doing the track in a few days . Hopefully you gents dried up any remaining slick wet clay and moved all the rocks out of the river crossings.

Your picture taking has improved by leaps and bounds with some great shots being produced and more natural looking colors. Awesome.

Max - Phil has got KTM orange shirts being produced, I have one version and the XL fits me so size accordingly.

Did you get the sleeping pad? I've found 47 boots for the Finn

 

[bigntall]

No new sleeping pad as I want XS and they don't have it. From the pics you posted its houses with bamboo mats and blankets so a blanket/mat underneath will do me fine. Bivy sack and down quilt again. Ideally I would like my hammock to pack as small as I luv the hammocks. Is your Nano an Asym hammock?

I've PM'd KMA but have not received a response. Do you know if he still has any Coyote's in stock?

 

[KTMphil]

No new sleeping pad as I want XS and they don't have it. From the pics you posted its houses with bamboo mats and blankets so a blanket/mat underneath will do me fine. Bivy sack and down quilt again. Ideally I would like my hammock to pack as small as I luv the hammocks. Is your Nano an Asym hammock?

I've PM'd KMA but have not received a response. Do you know if he still has any Coyote's in stock?

No idea

 

[The Bigfella]

You may run short of blankets with a large group. Its cold down there at the moment

 

[KTMphil]

You may run short of blankets with a large group. Its cold down there at the moment

I'd bring a wooly hat, clean socks for sleeping, and figure out a way of insulating my underside without an air mattress.

 

[The Bigfella]

Beware this creek....

.... its slippery. We swept the moss for you, but its still slippery. We've chopped the fallen bamboo, too.

[video=youtube_share;k0eFNpChNQE]http://youtu.be/k0eFNpChNQE[/video]

 

[The Bigfella]

Here's the wrong line for that creek.... with me doing it

[video=youtube_share;P-8y-cws3Fk]http://youtu.be/P-8y-cws3Fk[/video]

 

[The Bigfella]

... and a bit of the trail.... starting from where Jack had to hack down some big bamboo

[video=youtube_share;BtRsKXTILa8]http://youtu.be/BtRsKXTILa8[/video]

 

[KTMphil]

Back south across the Suriya River, we re-trace some of the trails we did the day before to get south, there's still lots of wet red clay around.

Making twine from bamboo, it has immense tensile strength

Back into the beautiful bamboo

30 minutes further along, we come across an abandoned Kawasaki D-Tracker

A bit of Shaky Hands detective stuff shows that they'd been there for a while waiting for some assistance to come pass, looks like they gave up and went to a village for help

 

[KTMphil]

Further south we ask if they've seen a rider walking, looking for assistance, they say they've seen no-ne.

Quite important to spot & use all the diversions off of the main trail around swamps, they are a problem if you get stuck, you sink trying to use force to dislodge the bike

 

[KTMphil]

A convoy of farm pickups returning from the New Rice Festival further north, I'm sure there's numerous sore heads

We take a few suspension bridges on the way south to speed things up

Yet more party-goers returning from the festival

Here one of the pickups has broken down at the top of the slippy hill. They send an alarmist down to try keep everyone safe

 

[KTMphil]

Another unusual bridge

& more swampy ruts ahead

We're now on the fast-track route back south to Sangkhlaburi, plenty of fun bamboo bridges

 

[KTMphil]

Nat had put a hole in his coolant expansion tank in a slip, it was near the top of the tank and not really an issue

10km to go and we'll be back on the concrete

4.30 pm & we're back in Sangkhalburi, a flowing quick ride, using the easy way it's possible to get through in one day

 

[KTMphil]

That's all from me, I think Bob has a few snaps..

 

[2wheels]

Excellent pic!

 

[bsacbob]

Myself and Pounce made the ride down to Kanchanaburi to begin the ride, we decided on taking the minor roads passing the West side of the Srinakarind Reservoir along the way, it has an interesting ferry boat.







The trail along this area is graded most of the way so no drama's apart from when my bike mysteriously packed in after a rutted section, after some poking and cutting a connection had come apart and we continued on our way. The ride along the Khao Laem reservoir is a nice scenic ride for a sports bike lover.







First job was to get my tyres changed i had posted down to Sangklaburi, here is the mechanics son helping open the package




A cold and misty start as we prepared the bikes for the off.



Phil looking like he enjoyed the cold water shower at the Guest House.




Finally on the trail and looking pretty dry.


P1010980 by bsacbob, on Flickr


Until this, Phil having a sinking moment.




One of the many water crossings that set the theme for the ride, each one got progressively more difficult.




Pounce making short work of this one.




Oop's we have a man down !!!!




NO this is not the same picture, Phil take THREE !




Pounce doing some mid trail pull up's, well one anyway.




My KLX having a rest.




Not sure whats they are looking for, maybe a lost wallet :-)




Everyone still smiling.




Some of the interesting single track.




This downhill was a nightmare for me.




The rafting section, beautiful place to ponder, Ian.




Phil hoping for a Kodak moment.





Maybe this was it....








Pounce looking nervous.




Smiling local's




Think this was his dad's old shirt.




Nat having one of his very few slip's.




Pounce in fancy dress.





Phil snoring loudly at 7.30am all ready for his return ride back at 7.30 am....pity none of us had thought to record his snores, it was like an AK47.





Local chap happy in his work chopping beetle nut's.




Wanna see some puppies little kid's !!!




A Mona Lisa smile, or maybe he was just thinking of all the ladies having no underwear.




Beautiful.




After noodles and group hugs with Jack and Nat it was time to go our separate ways and myself and Pounce went in search of more missing links and the end of our two day adventure.

 

[jack]

Hope to c u all next time:LOL

 

[KMA]

No new sleeping pad as I want XS and they don't have it. From the pics you posted its houses with bamboo mats and blankets so a blanket/mat underneath will do me fine. Bivy sack and down quilt again. Ideally I would like my hammock to pack as small as I luv the hammocks. Is your Nano an Asym hammock?

I've PM'd KMA but have not received a response. Do you know if he still has any Coyote's in stock?

Sorry I just saw the post/message. No coyote bags but have a used Mojave that I might want to sell

 

[Crude]

Good

All good stuff. Thks for the Pics

 

[The Bigfella]

Plenty more to come. Here's one....



Coming into the village at the end of the day.... bit of a puddle from washing water. I rode into it and both wheels went sideways and I was going down. I reefed it back up and saved it... but Phillip was pretty sure I was going to drop it and hit the brakes to save riding over the top of me. He went down... the next two piled up and then Nat, at the rear went down.

Dunno why I got the blame? I saved it. It really was like grease though