ESTHER Amery and Leigh-Anne Crossley have clocked up 3,000km so far on their bike ride for mental health charity Mind and have raised more than £1,500.

Their week has been exciting but scary as Esther explains: ‘We needed to take drastic action on two occasions when we ran out of water supplies.

‘Firstly, when cycling through the desert, we had to call on an isolated house where an older Vietnamese lady gave us water from a hosepipe.

‘Then when climbing the Hai Van Pass we optimised the water running down from the mountains.’

As well as the panic of no water, the PE teachers realised the travel vaccinations were essential after being eaten alive and gaining 70-plus mosquito bites in just one night.

Fortunately the team were not affected by the earthquake meaning there was one less thing to worry about.

On a more upbeat note the girls said: ‘We are loving the diversity of Vietnam, one day we’ll be battling through traffic and other days we’ll be cycling through isolated sand dunes.

‘We have been poked and prodded by locals for the colour of our skin, even the factor 50 cream that we are wearing is not preventing the sunburn.’

Even though the pair are covering more kilometres in Vietnam compared to Laos they are still spending around eight hours a day in the saddle.

The friends seem to be drawing a lot of publicity along the way. A German woman who owns a cafe in Dong Hoi was so inspired by their challenge that she decided to share their story on her website.

Donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/Esther-Amery.