Yesterday’s route in grey, today’s route in blue:

Plan was to continue down the Nam Ou from Muang Khua to Nong Khiaw. However it was a Sunday & the whole bunch of boatmen concurred it was unlikely that there would be (m)any locals heading downriver, & no one had seen any other tourists in town. Their advice was not to wait a day nor to charter a boat for USD100 (way beyond the cat’s budget!),