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On the eve of Colin’s departure from Thailand, after spending the last 5 months touring the country, Kevin, Art & myself met up with the Slash Monster at Miguels on the Lamphun road for coffee & a chat before taking a farewell ride for the day.

We rode down to Saraphi where I took the lead & showed the guys a river side route through some village roads & bypassed the usual traffic holdups in the city of Lamphun.

Coming out on the 106, we rode south to Ban Hong, caused a sensation at the 7/11, had various discussions on some very diverse topics and then pressed on to Doi Tao.

At the car park, the view across the valley was slightly clearer than a few weeks ago but just as dry. Today, led by the ever adventurous Kevin, we rode onto the bed of the valley, joining the cattle and experiencing the undulations of the partched dry flood plain.

After Doi Tao, we headed for the cut through to 4038 and then south towards 1087.

Along here, there was a chance to top up with fuel and also an opportunity for Slash to prove his skills, on road & off ! Following the road plough he decided he’d had enough & bronko’d across the border of the road. You can take the piss out of Slash but never the boy !

At the 1087 we turned right & into the Mae Ping National Park, at the entrance, the guys worked their charms on the gatekeepers, we went through without too much hinderance or messing about with money.

Kaeng Ko View point gave us a birds eye view of the changing weather conditions, the sky building with storm clouds and lightening cracking across the opposite mountains. Wind picking up and the water turning from calm to showing white tops on waves.

The rain started to lash down on our return to the park entrance and immediately the roads began to steam. The rain eased and we arrived for a top up in Li almost dry, after the wind from the massive nearby storm blew a furnace upon us as we rode.

From the 106 we took the 1274 and then the 1184 north towards Lamphun. We nearly escaped the rain again but as we climbed through the brilliant twisties, we crossed the path of the storm and this time we were well and truely soaked to the skin, standing beneath sparsely leaved eucalyptus trees.

We took the interesting little road 4010 which runs to a piece of water on the map called Mae Moei Reservoir. Kevins habit of not leaving a stone unturned (especially near water) turned up some wildlife and Colin enjoyed capturing the beautiful little snakes on camera as well as under his boot!

A brilliant ride, a fitting excursion to celebrate the close of Slashes holiday and a distance in excess of 420 kms.

Colin fly’s out tomorrow evening, 31 March 2010, so we are having a bite to eat with him at Miguels on the Lamphun Road from 17:00 – 18:30. Anyone interested in stopping by will be very welcome.

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D-Trackers say farewell to Slash

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