Day 31 Mon 2 October 2006 Phrang Nga Bay – Khao Sok, Thailand

A month on the road. Drove thru Phrang Nga town, a dreary place stretching several kms along its main street, but with spectacular karstic peaks all around. On quiet roads thru the country side and up into the hills where we came across two elephants working with a gang clearing a hillside. Interesting to watch them sure footedly clambering up a very muddy steep slope which would have defeated a wheeled or tracked vehicle. As the mountains got steeper and the road climbed the rain intensified and there were many recent landslides although the road was still passable. Eventually we reached the summit pass which marked the watershed between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, with mountains clad in mist and thick jungle. A short way down we branched off to the Khao Sok national park where we found a place to stay at “Our Jungle House”, by a fast flowing river.

As the rain continued torrentially we sat by the river watching the hornbills and the river rising with increasing trepidation and visions of the car floating away. We were on the wrong side of a narrow bridge which was itself in real danger of being washed away. With the river rising at over a metre an hour and less than 1 metre left to the top of the bank, and with access to most of the other huts by now cut off we decided on discretion and beat a retreat to higher ground. All the villagers were standing around the bridge, watching as logs, bamboo and the occasional wild pig rushed downstream in the muddy torrent which was now up to the road deck - clearly not an everyday event. Several of the other guest houses in the village were evacuating their guests or had taken the precaution of turning off the power.

The only thing to do was to have a drink or three waiting to see what would happen and had an excellent dinner at the appropriately named Misty Mountain restaurant, surrounded by fireflies. Eventually it stopped raining and the river began to fall so we returned to the Jungle House and slept fitfully waking every time and checking the river every time there was a fresh downpour.

Weather – showers 26.5,
Distance today 115km
Distance from start 6559km