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EXTRA MILE
mountains in the mist
karst your eyes on khao sok
YOU WOULD NEED AT LEAST A WEEK to do justice to the 160-million-yearold Khao Sok National Park, southern Thailand’s largest expanse of protected wilderness. Author and renowned environmentalist Thom Henley devoted an entire book to the park, called Waterfalls and Gibbon Calls, and he refers to the nature reserve as “one of the ’s crown”.
So, how exactly should one negotiate this gargantuan jungle? First, stay in situ to reduce travel time – Khao Sok is a few hours’ drive from Phuket. Room at Art’s Riverside Lodge (tel +66 (0)8 6470 3234) on the banks of the Sok River, where huge limestone karsts tower over the outdoor terrace restaurant and a swimming pool. From here, walk a kilometre to the local Buddhist temple, Wat Tam Pantoorat, and watch wild monkeys play tag across the cliff face. Humans must follow a rickety, latticed climbing ladder, which, if you have the head for heights, takes you to a meditation cave used by monks, some 60 metres above the ground.
Walkers should consider an 8km roundtrip walk along the Ban Laen River, starting behind the park headquarters and ending at Nam Tok Sip-et-Chan (which translates aptly to “11-level waterfall”). Allow four hours there and back; the delightful falls have a cool, clear pool at their base for a refreshing pre-lunch dip. Evidence of tigers, leopards, gibbons, barking deer, Malay sun bears and scaly anteaters have all been found on the trail.
Another fauna hotspot is the massive Cheow Larn Lake. The tallest limestone karsts here rise out of the lake’s inky black depths and are almost 1km high, more than three times the size of those in Phang Nga Bay. The cliff s are laced with a riot of colonising vegetation, which somehow claw a living from the sheer rock.
Keep a look out while you navigate your way – gibbons, lizards and hornbills abound amid the grottos of stalactites and stalagmites. And you never know what else you might see. – Barry Daniel
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