In our last episode, I had just packed my bag and decided to walk up the 3km access road to the beginning of the Khoa Soi Dao Waterfall trail.
I had only walked a few hundred meters when the National Park staff opened the boom gate for traffic, but I did not want to walk back and get my car. The Wardens offered me a ride, so I jumped on the back of their truck and we took a ride into oceans of green.
The old rangers station looks like a lot of the structures at Khao Soi Dao - in need of some government budget. Hell its only a reserve of biodiversity that took billions of years to emerge in perfect synergy, not likes it has any tradable value lol.. Anyhow it is always fascinating to see how our man made attempts at permanence survive and alter their surroundings
It had been raining all night, and parts of the track were underwater, the steep sections were quite slippery, but the 3km walk to the top of the waterfall was not overly difficult. I did wonder off track a few times and the way back was not the same as the route I took on the way up. I came closer to the water more times on the way back. These jungle pathways require constant maintenance to prevent them from being swallowed in the sea of life competing for sunlight.
This tree had offerings to spirit placed arounds its base. The usual soft drinks and floral arrangements were present, what was unique here was the traditional clothing and full outfits just left there in the rain. The pile of trash and lovingly made garments was not building up significantly so somebody must have been taking it away from time to time. This got me to thinking about how we turn to experts, especially when we are over-whelmed and how those keepers of specialist knowledge are under pressure to alleviate our fears. I may explore that line of thinking in a seperate post.
The Latin name for this species is bigasstree, this is what I had come for, to be in awe, and to actually stop thinking so much and really "sense" the full magic of my surroundings again. Anyhow what was I saying... :)
Parts of the track are very steep and slippery, I was quite glad to use the ropes. I did wonder though if whoever tied them had better knot tying skills than me..apparently so. This was also the exact moment my phone died, so no more bad photos could be taken.
Yep that is a photo of my foot, I have another one, but it looks pretty much the same. Once again I am very happy with these shoes and prefer them to my full on Scarpa hiking boots. When it is wet and muddy, I can just dip them in the stream to clean them and I they dry quickly. These ones have a toe cap which offers more protection, but the open toe models are good for letting sand and small stones pass more freely. Both are great until it gets cold, though I have worn them with thick socks, that will not prevent wind chill, which can be a killer...though not so much in Thailand lol..
I was going to call this photo "peacefalls" but lucky for you guys, I never make bad jokes..
Here it is, the money shot. The top of the falls. Actually I could not get any higher than this as there was no path and the slope was covered in slippery fallen bamboo leaves.
The shot I would have loved to have got was of a very large crab, that clattered across the path in front of me, he was bright orange and the size of my shoe. There was an abundance of wild food in this landscape, the mountains were too hard to farm and are mostly owned by the Navy which is probably good. I am coming to suspect that agriculture never increased the amount of nutrient dense food on the planet, it merely focused it and lowered the quality. Swapping essential fatty acids for insulin raising carbs and fructose that interferes with the way proteins fold. It is vey sad to hear people who still think that plant based agriculture can solve any problems.
Nature is a perfect recycling and regenerative system, in a perfect system all you can do is learn from messing it up. On a lighter note, everyone loves being in pristine environments, despite the minor discomforts we can deeply relax and return to our senses.
I was guessing this sign also confirmed that this was the end of the road. I walked back down to the carpark, but there was only a few people arriving and no one leaving. So I walked back, in total that was 3km up, 3km down then 3km back to the car = 9km. I did that without any breakfast and I did not take any water with me, which I know from experience is not a problem due to my amazing and very boring diet. Yeah everyone is sick of hearing about that lol...
Thanks for joining me
=8-P
The rest of this series can be found below:
I had delivered the Stand Up Paddle board to Steve, checked out his very cool artwork and had a paddle adventure. I could stay another night and explore more great beaches in Laem Sing, but what I really wanted to do next, was see some big ass trees. The mountains were calling me Part 1