Highway-48
Highway-48 is the link between Highway-4 and Koh Kong on the Cambodian/Thai border.

Highway-4 was American funded/constructed, and has a high quality, metalled surface.

Until 12 months ago, Highway-48 was a track. It is now a graded, unsealed road for its full 140km length, providing the final link in the road system from Phnom Penh to the Cambodian/Thai border-crossing on the Gulf coast.

There remain 4 mini ferry crossings for the small rivers which cross the road, but there is a new toll bridge (opened April 2002) at Koh Kong. The ferries negotiated their services in Thai Baht, and accepted this currency and, like elsewhere in Cambodia, US$. Doubtless, Cambodian Riel would also be accepted.

As the road is unsealed, it will suffer during the annual rain-season. This was witnessed in a minor way during a torrential thunder storm while I was travelling it. It was heavily ponded in sections during the storm, and washed-out in others afterwards.

It is also annoyingly corrugated in parts.

Overnight parking point on Highway-48.
A violent thunder storm the previous night reduced the dust levels the next morning.

Yes, I was parked on a bend, albeit behind a row of concrete posts. And, yes - I was there for the entire night.

The case for the defence pleads that, when I stopped, it was darker and wetter than it would be for an ant practicing scuba diving in a well of black ink.