I had a restless nights due to how hot it gets within my tent. Outside was beautifully cool but without the slightest of breezes my tent is like a sauna which isn’t the best when you’re trying to sleep. It took me 2 hours to get everything sorted and ready to go, I had hoped to be ready for the off within an hour but I guess my camping routine isn’t as well drilled as it was but it comes with time.
Riding I could feel the lack of sleep take over my body, I said to myself I deserved a real bed tonight because camping when its so hot is just silly. My main goal today was to be by a beach as this more than likely would be the last chance I would get to see the sunset into the ocean till Cali (in all honestly I have never in my whole life watch the sunset like this). The cycling today was pretty straight forward and uninspiring though I did see more cyclists, local and foreign, on the roads today. I made good ground today and by 1230 reached a beach to which had promising camping spots but this is where my own drama began. Having never really wild camped truly I’m a little edgy about where is a good place to put the tent up, I don’t want to get caught out by some dodgy or mischievous locals and be robbed or part of some joke to which they would find amusing, nor do I really want to be discovered. When the crunch came I was a little out of my comfort zone, having read a book by Alistair Humphreys he talked about wild camping and that the first night is the worst but stiff upper lip and it gets easier gradually. They was two beaches one was by a freshly tarmac road and you wouldnt call it busy, more a steady flow of traffic but there was people hanging around, the second was along a steep gravel road that was rather steep and I guessed it would be the quieter and more secluded of the two. Firstly however I cycled the 3kms back to town to get a few more supplies and completely chicken out and check the price of the guesthouse out. It was 450 baht per night which would blow my 500baht daily budget so back to the beach I went to face my fear. Pushing my bike up the steep gravel track I was thinking to myself maybe no one comes this way, at that very moment a motor cycle went by. I got up and over, there was a couple of disused beach huts but the beach itself was empty, I had the whole this to myself. I found a patch of flatted grass, then set about using the cut braches to try and camouflage where I’d put up my tent so vehicles wouldn’t be able to see me, I learnt this from Monty Pythons ‘the art of not being seen.’ 
I tried to convince myself to relax and enjoy it, fishing would help this so I went on the hunt for some bait, a rotten fish on the beach would do the trick. No luck on that score I opted for a swim instead. A few motorcycles and a couple of utes passed by on the beach unawares I was there, I was beginning to relax and enjoy this a bit more. I waited till just before sunset before putting my tent up just incase anyone did come along the track where I was camping. Just before I put the tent up, the utes I had seen on the beach came along, I had been discovered but they were full of thai tourists and I actually didn’t mind them knowing my whereabouts, at least somebody knew of a cyclists camping by the beach. Just as I put the tent up a local on a motorcycle went by, I waved hello but was thinking ‘bollocks,’ he didn’t look hugely interested in me though, I hope this is the case.
As the sun began to drop into the sea I took my pictures then set about dinner of past, onion, garlic and tinned fish, you wouldn’t believe me but after weeks of noodles or rice this was a masterpiece. The mosquitoes where out in numbers but I’m coping, it’s just trying to get the cool sea air flowing into my steamy tent without letting the ants and mozzies in, going to be another uncomfortable night in thee ole tent.
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