Holed-up in Khlong Khlung and Rosie's gone home!

Wednesday, 1 October; Day 27 and after completing just 8 km this morning to get to where I am now, I decided that Ros should take Rosie back to Lamphun. Consequently, I now find myself sitting in a very nice 300 baht-a-night motel opposite Khlong Khlung service station on Route 1 until Ros gets back here either this evening or early doors tomorrow and then we'll resume our journey. We also have a problem with a slow puncture in one of our tyres and no spare nor sufficient funds to pay for a relacement! I tried to get money out of the small sub-branch of Ayudhya bank at the services when it opened at 9.30 this morning but they don't have a swipe machine to process a cash advance on my Visa card and I've forgotten the PIN number so I can't use the ATM either! So Ros will have to withdraw cash from our bank in Lamphun today and then go and get the tyre replaced this afternoon up there. It's a 4-5 hour drive from here I reckon so she'll get in to Lamphun around 3 and could even get back here tonight though that's a fair bit of driving in one day so we'll see how she feels when she's finished running around.

Having Rosie with us for a couple of days has been enjoyable in some ways but this is not the kind of thing you should be doing and having a toddler in tow unless you've got more back-up than we have. The last two nights have been difficult to say the least as we've been plagued by mosqitos in the car both nights and we've been unable to utilise the tent so there's been virtually no room to even turn over in the back of the car with the three of us being there. Sleep deprivation may be a useful tool if you want to get someone to talk but it ain't much use if you need them to walk! And a long way at that! She's been fine in the car with Ros while I've been on the road but once we've stopped, even just for a meal break, she's put her 'difficult' head on and made life more difficult than it is already. Hopefully, with the tyre sorted out today and Ros rejoining me at a reasonable time tomorrow morning if not tonight, we can get ourselves back on track though our Sunday 'rest' day has already been used up for this week.

We managed to get May on an earlier bus on Monday morning and she got back to Lamphun OK in the afternoon. We decided to go down to Nakhon Sawan bus station early doors and see if we could get her on another bus and change the ticket and we got lucky so she was on her way at 8am. She's now finished for the school term and can help Yai with Rosie and keeping the Foundation looking as it should; clean and tidy. That allowed us to get back to and check out of the hotel earlier than previously anticipated and get on the road at a more reasonable hour but it was still after 9 before I started walking from the city limits. It's 117 km from Nakhon Sawan to Kampaeng Phet and, with this morning's effort, we've covered around 70 km so far. If the weather is kind to us, and it rained a fair bit last night and a little this morning, we could get to Kampaeng Phet some time Friday afternoon, but again, we'll be about 24 hours behind schedule.

On another negative note, I've started to experience some niggles in both my right calf and the back of my left thigh since leaving Nakhon Sawan. Touch wood it's nothing serious and I've been able to walk through it these last two days but injuries are the last thing I need right now given the time restraints we're working under and the time already lost. Perhaps a day laid up in bed today will do the trick. A couple of hours of uninterupted sleep this afternoon wouldn't go amiss, I know that! Someone advised me to listen to my body while I'm doing this walk and not push it if I start to encounter problems. It's sound enough advice but I don't really know what the root of the problem is. Certainly, being squashed up in the back of the car at night fighting off the attentions of the mossies won't be doing me any good. Hopefully, the rest today will do the trick and a good nights sleep after a hot shower will set me up for the advance on Kampaeng Phet tomorrow.