Khao Kitchakut NP
This was to be our next stopping place, on arrival at the gate I thought I made it clear I wanted to go up to the Buddha footprint hill and eventually after a lot of ‘which hill (mountain), where’ as if they didn’t know, I got pissed off and said we would stay and I would go look the next day. As soon as they had our money things changed ‘you cant go up the mountain the only place you can go is the waterfall’ Happy I was not so we turned round and headed out the gate. I wont be going back.
Khao Sip Ha Chan NP 18th to 21st April 2018
We got about half way there from Khao Kitchakut and it absolutely hosed down so we stayed in a roadside hotel for the night of the 17th. Next morning it had cleared and we drove the 6km up the entrance road arriving at 7am to find nobody at the gate and the barrier up so we drove up the road to the waterfall parking area and looked around for a good camping site. 8am the staff started to arrive and we were told it was dangerous to camp in the camping ground as there were animals roaming around including an elephant that had pushed over a tree just yesterday night ‘see over there’. We were shown an old sala behind the visitor center where we set up camp which suited me as if we can camp in a building I don’t have to set up a full camp.
Then drove up to the waterfall car park and went up to the firth level of the fifteen level fall, quite a bit of birdlife about including 2 hornbill (wreathed?) which stayed out of sight calling to each other across the stream, also some old elephant and deer sign.
Back at camp it would seem I have been assigned 2 minders who explained how dangerous the place was, don’t go here, there, don’t walk around at night, must be at least 2 people go together to the waterfalls, if one gets hurt the other can come back for help. The staff have all recently done courses in first aid and water and mountain safety and are ‘overly cautious’ paranoid even and dumb farang are the most dangerous of all for they know nothing about the animals and the forests and are likely to get lost, injured, trampled by elephants or otherwise killed.
Ying told them of the places we have been the forests we have been to and animals we have encountered but they had their orders so they hung up hammock in the visitor center where they could keep an eye on our camp.
A generator provided power in the evenings and when needed by the HQ and visitor center, a squat toilet served our sala and western style in both the visitor center and a toilet block on the other side of the camp ground.
Next morning I snuck away early when the minders were still sleeping and wandered around the camp ground then across to and around a large grass area and up to what is apparently accommodation although it and the access track don’t look to inviting, sooked a Sambar on the way up and saw several other deer tracks. There is an easily drivable road that goes from the grass area up a valley to more grass areas one of which has an old broken watch tower at one end. I started up this road and got chased down by a minder on a motorbike ‘bai mai dai, bai mai dai, andarai’.
The next morning I had an idea (why didn’t I think of it before) and showed one of the minders my old trail cam and some of the photos it had taken and suggested I put it up the forbidden road. He thought this was a good idea and accompanied me for about a kilometer to the end of the road seeing several birds, a crab-eating Mongoose and fresh Gaur, Deer and medium size cat tracks. I put the trail cam at a salt lick on the way back and next morning I had caught a Muntjak and a pair of eyes that were probably a Sambar, now if I had put the thing there the first night.
In the afternoon I went for a sneaky look up a side road partly blocked with logs that goes off to the left before the waterfall parking spot, this goes for about a kilometer to a stream and possibly farther, some good birds along there as well as a pig wallow, old elephant and deer sign.
Next morning my friendly minder was nowhere to be found seems he got told off for taking me to that dangerous place and reassigned. Told the HQ fella I had to pick up the trail cam and could easy drive there but no I might get stuck on a flat dry road but I was allowed to walk to get it.
There is a nature trail that starts close to the waterfall parking area but as I didn’t attempt to walk it I cant report what condition it is in.
We were told that there are a herd of around 20 Hog Deer that regularly come out to graze at the camp ground at night and a herd of elephants that do a circuit which includes the grass area across from the camp, also a couple of loan elephants including the one that pushed the tree over.
They have an elephant task force squad that tracks the elephant herd and is on call if farmers have problems with their crops being raided, not an enviable job.
The place has some fantastic sunsets, red and gold and in spite of all the ‘danger’ it has an ambience I like and I will be quite happy to go back when possibly some of their ‘keen’ will have worn off.
Birds
Ashy Drongo
Ashy Woodswallow
Asian-brown Flycatcher
Blue-eared Barbet
Black-crested Bulbul
Black-headed Bulbul
Black-naped Oriole
Cattle Egret
Common Iora
Common Myna
Coppersmith Barbet
Dollarbird
Greater Coucal
Greater-racket-tailed Drongo
Green-billed malkoha
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
Hill Mynah
Indian Rollar
Little Egret
Moustached barbet
Plaintive Cuckoo
Puff-throated Bulbul
Red-breasted Parakeet
Red Junglefowl
Red-wattled lapwing
Rufescent Prinia
Streak-eared Bulbul
Stripe-throated Bulbul
Thick-billed green Pigeon
Tiga Flycatcher
Venous-breasted Starling
Violet Cuckoo
White-rumped Munia
Clouded Monitor
Crab-eating Mongoos
Sambar Deer
Common Muntjac