14th to 15th December Jungle Camping Tour

On Friday, after a relaxed morning, we arrived at the starting point of our camping tour at 9 o'clock. We had breakfast there and prepared ourselves for the upcoming hike. Since no one else had booked this tour (an information center said, 'Nobody wants to go camping here.' - very encouraging), we had another private tour with a private guide. We drove a little around the park from the entrance with the car and were dropped off in the middle of the road. There was only a small rickety wooden ladder by the roadside.

But we entered the national park through that ladder and walked along the jungle path for about two hours, which continuously led uphill. It was a nice feeling to be alone in the jungle with our group and to hike up the sometimes barely visible path. We also had a good view of the rest of the rainforest, which stretched on both sides of our path.

On the way up, we stopped and walked a short distance off the path. There, we could discover the large red Rafflesia flowers, which are very rare and famous in the Khao Sok National Park. These parasitic plants can form the largest flowers in the plant world and stand out in the dark green to brown rainforest with their red color.

We continued a shorter distance up the mountain until we reached the highest point and could start going downhill. We passed fallen trees, termite mounds, and cicada nests, which our guide always explained to us. However, the typical rainforest weather set in: rain. We didn't notice much of it, though, as a thick foliage protected us from the worst. However, the little that found its way to the ground made it muddy and slippery, and we were relieved when we reached a river down below.

The rain continued, and we had to change our shoes because we had to walk through water more often and our sneakers had to survive. We continued in and along the river, and a few times we had to climb beside waterfalls in our flip-flops. That was by far the most adventurous part of our trip because we often slid down some rocks or got stuck with our large backpacks. However, everyone arrived safely down. There, we had lunch first (it was half past two) and dried ourselves with the sun, which came out a few times.

Finally arrived down

We continued along the river, often changing sides so that we could make progress. This continued until we came to a spot where the water would reach our chests, it was that deep. Since we didn't want to freeze afterwards, we put on our swimming clothes and carried the backpack on our shoulders to cross the river.

Luckily, this was the last contact with cold river water for my cold. After that, we only had to walk through the jungle for about two and a half hours until we reached the camping site. On the way, we saw not only the already impressive flora but also glimpses of the special fauna of the Khao Sok National Park. Besides many butterflies, we saw, for example, hornbills or different species of monkeys.

The 'camping site' consisted of three huts for protection against rain and orchards that extended around them. Together with our guide and another helper from the camping site, we lit a small fire made of bamboo and prepared rice wrapped in leaves and stuffed into bamboo sticks, as well as chicken, over this campfire. Together with a separately mixed vegetable dish, this made a delicious meal that was enjoyed from halves of bamboo sticks and with coffee from cups made from the ends of bamboo.

While eating, it got dark, and we set off again to explore the rainforest at night. During this, we saw nocturnal animals like the 'Pokupai', as our guide called it, but we don't know its name in German. It had spines like a porcupine and the head of a marten - nature can come up with some strange ideas. There were also many insects that surrounded our small group before we returned and hung up the hammocks.

In principle, this will not become my favorite sleeping method, but I was able to sleep quite well until the next morning, which is almost a small miracle considering the sound of the neighboring river and the constant noise of the rainforest.

The next morning we woke up quite early and had scrambled eggs and toast roasted over a fire with jam. Then we started on the shorter half-day hike, which mainly had no significant inclines or declines and even led the last meters along the wider road usable by tourists.

We made it by noon and were back at the starting point. There, we relaxed a little more with our guide, who had to leave soon after. We thanked him for safely leading us through this jungle.

In the afternoon, we took a walk around the surroundings outside the national park since there wasn't much else to do here. We were blessed with a tropical downpour again, but we could endure it under cover and later went out to eat.

Thus, the time in the inland is over. Tomorrow we will leave early to go to Koh Tao, an island. This is my last stop before ending in Bangkok, and we want to get our diving certificate there. However, since the monsoon is still prevailing there, it will probably not be a real beach vacation, but perhaps we will be lucky.