Right in the middle of my late January exploration surge, I had a single day in between other adventures, but not wanting to be sedentary, I opted to turn it into a solo day. Not bothering to make any sort of plan, my only goal would be to just keep wandering and see where the road went. So many times my adventures are so planned and prepared, that once in a while it's nice to simply get out and explore with no plan at all. The weather was grey and overcast, but it wasn't actually raining, so it seemed like a good day as any to go for a drive.
Passing through Da Nang and pointing the bike west towards Ba Na, I left the city behind and cruised over Dai La Pass along the new Ba Na Expressway. This massive 8-lane road was built to allow easy access to Sun Groups' cash cow from the city centre. It basically looks like someone drew as straight of a line as possible between the two and said "Build it". The low-hanging clouds allowed for some dramatic photos.
Instead of turning onto the Bypass over to Hoa Phu and the PH-604, I turned off the Ba Na Expressway onto a small dirt road, with the intention of trying to find a small lake that had shown up during a Google Maps session one day. Further down, if roads allowed, was the confluence of two fairly sizable rivers in the Da Nang area, the Tuy Loan, and the Lo Dong. Both rivers are somewhat special to me, so seeing the confluence was something that had been on the "To Do" list for quite some time.
The Lo Dong River (on the right) comes out of the mountains to west, draining the southern slopes of the Nui Chua Massif [Ba Na Hills] and the northern slopes of the Nui Tho Thennon, the mass of small ranges that rises to the south of Ba Na Hills. It's headwater begins abruptly at the headwall below the basin that holds the Song Vang. Along it's course are the swimming resorts of Suoi Hoa, and Ngam Doi, as well as the rafting adventure of Hoa Phu Thanh. In addition, a large Japanese style onsen hot spring resort is being built along the valley. The Lo Dong alters between placid and dynamic, flowing through calm fields and whitewater gorges.
The Tuy Loan River (bottom of the frame, under the bridge I am on) comes out of the mountains to the north, draining the north and east slopes of the Nui Chua Massif, as well as the rolling foothills of Hoa Ninh. The Tuy Loan rises in the wild jungles on the slopes of Ba Na, and falls down through a rocky canyon for a considerable distance, with several beautiful waterfalls and tight gorges, before losing it's steam and then meandering all the way down to the confluence. This river runs right underneath the Ba Na Hills cable car and is incredibly picturesque.
After the confluence, I wandered along a country road between Hoa Nhon and Hoa Phu for a while. It was beautiful country, classic rural Vietnam country road. Quiet, sleepy villages, water buffalo, friendly locals, and rice paddies. Eventually I cruised into Hoi Phuoc and found myself right outside of an elementary school as it was getting out for lunch. This turned out to be a photo goldmine as they were all super excited to smile and wave the moment I whipped my camera out.
School kids in Hoi Phuoc.
I was there for five or six minutes, saying hellos and taking pictures. Everyone was very friendly and it was a great moment of interaction. These are the moments that will leave the impression most on me from Vietnam. Driving off, I had gone perhaps 500 meters when I came around the corner into Hoa Phu, and stumbled upon a huge group of middle & high school kids in the middle of the road. I'm not 100% sure, as it all happened quickly, but I feel like I happened to come up on a fight in progress, and that my unexpected presence gave everyone a deer in the headlights look before the decided to scatter. It was really strange and hilarious all at the same time. Quite a bit different from the interaction with the younger kids.
Leaving the towns behind, I kept on cruising up the road, stopping for a coffee at a small cafe on an island that I had driven by 100 times before but had never stopped at. It was pretty good coffee actually. Not too bad this time of year but I bet the mosquitoes (that's "mozzies" for you strange Aussies) can be bad during the wetter parts of the year. After that it was a nice long cruise up the valley. Dramatic low-lying clouds continued to provide good photo opportunities. Water in the gorge made for some great river shots as well.
Further up I stopped a couple of times to photograph a couple of the seasonal waterfalls that show up in this valley during the wet season. During the dry part of the year there isn't any water [or very little] coming down some of these drainages, leaving only smears of wet across the rock or the tiniest dribble of water. However, this time of year, those fat low-lying clouds that had been working for good photos so far were full of rain and moisture not too far above me. As a result, all of those drainages were now full of rushing water, cascading down the rocks and creating beautiful veils of white that wouldn't last. There was a good one directly above Suoi Hoa, and one just a little east of there as well.
Eventually I found myself nearing the head of the valley. I had no aspirations of making up into Xa Ba and the Song Vang Valley, so I steered my bike off onto an old logging road and slowly cruised for a while up that. My road soon ran out and I switched to foot, hiking up a short distance above the creek. The trail went on for about 600 meters, but petered out as it met the old growth jungle at a small stream. Seeing a side fork, I thrashed through the jungle for a while to reach the creek upstream, hoping to find a possible waterfall. All I got was spiders, spiderwebs, and thorny, scratchy vines.
Unfortunately, when I was done thrashing back out of the forest, I realized in addition to the spiders, spiderwebs, and thorny vines, I unwittingly picked up a couple of friends: leeches. These were of the tiny, little green variety, but they still tingle when you pull them off. Needless to say at this point I was not amused. I was done having fun and wanted out of the forest. Never did find my waterfall, so had to drive up the main road a little bit and stop for a picture of it from the road.
Coming back down the valley, I passed a forest fire that had popped up while I was up at the head of the valley, and upon stopping closer to it to get a zoomed in view, I was a bit shocked to see figures out walking around amongst the flames. This was a controlled burn, slashing and burning for what I'm assuming will be resorts along the base of Ba Na Hills.
Flames from the fire. The white spot in the middle below is a man.
By that point my time for adventuring had run out and I needed to get back to the city. But I was glad for the day; I had done a good job of wandering around and filling the day without plan or preparation. Although I had been around a lot of the roads around the area, I was still able to find some new places that I hadn't seen before either. And even though there was some minor inconveniences aas a result of thrashing through the jungle, it was still a great day and well worth getting out. Thanks for reading! |
All photos copyright Kit Davidson.