Wow – My Vietnam to Cambodia cycle challenge is over – I did it! It has been an incredible, amazing, humbling experience that has certainly taken me out of my comfort zone and tested my personal strength to the limit at times. The challenges came thick and fast and naively were many more and so different to the ones I envisaged but with each I was able to find a solution and turn it into a positive. I’m a fairly quiet person and need time to get to know people so being in a group of 47 very loud and extrovert people was an initial struggle, although being thrown together for the same cause meant bonds were soon formed in supporting each other and so I was able to find my place and build friendships. The heat and humidity were expected; however knowing about them on paper and actually experiencing it cycling on tarmac and dusty mud roads in 34+ heat, with no shade or respite for hours on end is an entirely different matter and an extreme challenge for many of us. I had no problems in Vietnam but the increased intensity of heat in Cambodia hit me and I suffered heat exhaustion and was weak because I couldn’t eat but found a way to survive and stay off that back up bus was to douse myself in icy water at every water stop and make up and sing positive mental attitude songs. The non-stop schedule from 5.30 am until late every night was grueling and provided no down time at all to recover, however it packed in so many opportunities, experiences I would not have wanted to miss and am so grateful to have experienced that I would not have changed it at all. My hours of preparatory cycle training paid off – I had strong legs and no saddle soreness so could enjoy the time on my bike and drink in all the views, sights, sounds and smells each place had to offer. I loved Vietnam and Cambodia – so very different to each other, enchanting and both beautiful in their own way. Our guides took us off the usual tourist routes, so we cycled through paddy fields, banana plantations, rural landscapes and villages, stopped at temples and pagodas and a village school. We crossed rivers with our bikes on ferries and visited a floating market, street market, the painfully sad and thought provoking genocide museum and killing fields. We somehow survived cycling on dirt tracks, avoiding pot holes, cows, dogs and pigs, through some busy cities in with all the manic cars and motorcycles and very different rules of the road to ours - mainly - never stop -just keep going!! We were viewed as celebrities by all the people who came out in droves to look at us, speak to us or touch us as we cycled past their houses and shouted out thousands of ‘hellos’ and waved ourselves silly to all the beautiful smiling faces greeting us afraid to miss anyone out. We were lucky enough to see the very heart of life in each country, see how hard the people work to sustain a living from the land and natural resources around them, wasting nothing but seemingly so peaceful and happy with their lives . Although definitely a challenge, truly humbling and thought provoking, I have loved it and along the way I have been helped to raise much needed funds for research – Thank you Gayle