And then there were two....

We started with five on our tour two days ago, then we went up to nine on the boat. Five people left after the boat to go back to Hanoi so we were down to four. Today Claire and Sarah left for Hanoi so it is just Martyn and I now for the next two days and it's my bit coming up!

Today was a kind of intermediary day in between our two choices! Despite this it was a great day.
Started at 8 with breakfast, then a one hour walk around the valley of sunshine - not kidding with the name either, at nine thirty in the morning it was 35 degrees. Phew it was another hot one! Stunning walk amongst limestone karsts and paddy fields.
For some reason we decided that we weren't hot enough after our walk so we drove to another village and did a 1.5 hour cycle ride. I have to say though this was possibly the most beautiful bike ride on the planet. Absolutely stunning and well worth the bucket of sweat we each emitted!

Then lunch and another short drive to our boat ride along a river, in bits of shadow from the karsts (please is there more shade?) - we 'borrowed' our drivers umbrella to get some shade on the boat. Visited a temple and a pagoda and were rowed through 6 caves (nice and cool - please are there more caves?)
Found ice cream on return - never eaten ice cream so fast , it melted before we'd got the wrapper off so it was more a sort of 'slush cream' but it was cold.
Thank goodness, one hour in car with air con - the relief. Had bag of crisps and Martyn had a pineapple jelly kindly donated by Julie our exceptionally tiny guide.

Ready for my day tomorrow - just waiting for dinner then sleep - have air con tonight but not tomorrow night so we're making the most of it!