We made it!! (Team Pirates)

Hello everyone!!
We made it, woohooo! Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past few days, we didn't have access to internet whilst on the road and we've been partying too hard since we arrived in Sihanookville to even look at a computer!!
So, the last blog left us in Phnom Penh. Since then we had to delay our departure for a day because one of our group came down with food poisoning and another with worms (we think!) so they didn't have the best few days! Everyone needed the rest though after the strenuous journey to Phnom Penh so it was definately for the best. We also had another team throw their toys out the pram and drop out because they weren't getting their own way, but they were causing non stop grief since the day they arrived so everyone was glad to see the back of them...

We left the following day. In the morning Emily's adopted tarantula, Terry, had to be let loose into the wild because it tried to bite her, obviously didn't appreciate being saved from the deep fat frier (or the drugs that it was being fed just wore off!!) She dropped it off in the bushes right next to the hotel so someone's going to have a nice surprise soon! Within 5 minutes of setting off we got stopped by the police again, we were both bricking it because we set up a smaller pirate sail a couple of days before and thought they were going to try and bust us for that again! Turned out they just wanted to fine everyone in the support vehicle $2 for not wearing their seat belts... However, they were quick to let us off 'just this one time' when Phil asked for a receipt! Once out of Phnom Penh we hit the highway, cruising along at top speed before another police officer came running in front of us screaming in Khmer at the top of his lungs and waving his arms for us to stop. Nope, this time we weren't in trouble: our mast was just too big for the bridge in front of us and would have completely wiped us out if we tried to go under it at the speed we were going, we managed to scream to a halt about 2 metres in front of it so that was a seriously close call! We then caused a traffic jam as we had to get out, reverse the tuk tuk, push it up onto the side of the road and then drive it round the bridge, much to the amusement of many passers by!!
The rest of the day was without incident, just a brilliant day's driving, passing beautiful scenery, everyone racing each other down the road, high fiving people on the back of trucks, motorbikes and anyone else we could reach (although Emily won that competition!!) We managed to cover over 100km before we stopped for the night, at a guest house at the base of the cardomon mountains. Once all checked in, we decided that we wanted to do some more driving so we took out the bikes and the tuk tuks and went off road for a couple of hours exploring the nearby villages, veeeery beautiful!! Tom was very close to toppling his tuk tuk though when he hit a pot hole too fast and lost control of his bike!! When we got back many beers and laughs were had before we all passed out ready for the next day!
When we awoke the next morning we were told we had to complete the first of two challenges, the winners of which would receive a crate of beer when we arrived in Sihanookville. The Khmer team had hidden all of our tuk tuks and the challenge was to find them, reattach them to the bike and then make it back to the starting point first! Team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and made it back to the starting point in 1 minute 10 seconds, get in!! The following two teams both found their tuk tuks at the same time and both raced back to the starting point, playing a game of chicken in the process when they realised that there was only enough room for one of them to pass, very nearly resulting in a head on collision!! They were very disappointed when they saw that we had already made it back though! Tom's tuk tuk was hidden outside the guest house and he spent about 5 minutes racing around on his bike looking for it, the Khmer team all rolling around on the floor laughing the whole time!!
That day's driving was the best yet, everyone had really grown in confidence riding their tuk tuks and we hit some great speeds as we flew along through the mountain range, only just managing to climb the steep hills at about 10 km/hour but then hitting over 60 km/hour as we raced back down them. We stopped off at a huge 30ft golden buddha which was really impressive and then decided to do a few hours of off road as we were making such good progress. We decided that we were all exceedingly hot driving along in nearly 40 degrees heat so we went on the search for somewhere we could have a swim! We cruised around on some very bumpy roads, and were told when we stopped of at a roadside shack that the sea was only 30km away, so we went off in search of that, leading us to a lovely seaside village which was great fun to drive through (although we had to drive very carefully as there was lots of low electricity wires that we could have taken out with our mast!) The sea was not very nice there though, so we decided to give swimming and possible cholera a miss!!
After getting back on the main road we went in search of a pagoda, and we found a beautiful one up a dusty old road in the mountains, surrounded by stunning scenery. The monks there were all very friendly and accomodating, so we set up our hammocks in the trees surrounding the pagoda, sleeping next to statues of buddha. Amazing.... Charlie decided that he wanted to have a go at cooking so went down to the local market in search of food and actually managed to cook a very decent meal, all things considered!!
The following morning saw the next challenge, where we had to fetch our front wheel, roll it back to the bikes and then reattach it as fast as possible. Once again, team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and came in first place (however, we actually managed to bugger our speedometre in the process which didn't work for the rest of journey, but ssshhhhh you're not supposed to know that!!) We all drove off and had another great day's driving, as we came closer and closer to Sihanookville. We had an hour's delay at the roadside though as Rob managed to snap the spokes of his wheel when he hit a pothole so hard! After we set off again we overtook a motorbike carrying a pig in a cage behind it, which then proceeded to overtake us again a couple of minutes later and whilst it was passing by the pig started to piss which then caught the wind and went all over Maarten's legs and face!! The kid on the back of the truck thought it was hilarious as Maarten was forced to spit pig's pee from his mouth whilst driving!!
And then we arrived in Sihanookville, woooohoooo!! We went straight to the beach and all ran straight into the sea, fully clothed (our pirate outfits which had been worn for 8 days straight now were seriously smelly and in desparate need of a wash, as were we!!) It was the first time many of the Khmer team had swam in the sea, so that was one hell of an experience for them: Soth couldn't understand why the water was so salty!! That night we had an awesome seafood barbeque and then proceeded to drink ourselves to oblivion in true celebratory style!!
Huge thanks to all those who sponsored us, raced with us and helped to make this amazing experience happen!!
LET'S DO THIS!!!!!

ps, photos and videos to follow soon, so stay tuned!!