In the morning, Pat made with me an excursion to a short, prepared trail and a view point in the middle. When we left, she showed me a pair of wild chicken (called “junglefowl”) near the house.
I wouldn’t have paid the much attention, because I thought they were “normal” domestic chicken.
It was not much after 7a.m. and yet the place was crowded, because people want to enjoy the sunrise there, some with a lot of noise. So, there was little chance to see wild goats that Pat had spotted there before.
We continued to the highest point of the park that is occupied by the air force since the Vietnam war times when US-troops had used that place.
Of course, the view again was great, we also could see the bungalow we had slept in.
And Pat found another of these huge moths she had send me a picture of.
We went back to the bungalow to pack our stuff and together with Robert, we went to the visitor center to have breakfast.
There, a group of photographers aimed their zooms at a tree and Pam helped me to find their “target” a big owl, a fish owl.
Then we prepared to go a trail that Pam is currently planning. I also put on those protective gaiters Pam and Robert had lent me.
On the trail, she showed things I wouldn’t have seen or wouldn’t have understood, like a special oak tree that was not that typical mighty tree we associate with oak
but a thin branch seeking the light.
Have fun to spot the hens running (“Siamese fireback”) through the picture where Pam points to – I saw them in nature, not on the photo…
On the trail, there will be some stations with information charts to nature and history of that area. The top of the hill had also been used by US-troops and before that had been used for agriculture. So, the trail partly leads along the border between pristine and secondary forest.
You could see traces of the street and some concrete remains. But nature will make these traces more and more invisible. Nature is powerful anyway…
On a thin tree, there was a nest of ants. The nest itself was interesting enough, but somehow the ants also had coloured the tree mostly black, only above the nest you could see the original colour.
We came out of the woods to a grassland and you could find the scattered bones of a deer, apparently victim of wild dogs called dholes or Asiatic wild dogs.
finally, the cast
The round ended were it had begun, at a reservoir that at first sight looked like a lake you also could find in other parts of the world.
We returned to the visitor center, seeing pig-tailed macaques eating some human food.
please note the unstable dancing pose of this girl in the background
It is forbidden to feed them, so you can ask if someone ignored that or just had been careless, Robert removed the empty bag.
Our last trail led along the Pha Kluai Mai River
and Haew Suwat waterfall
I wonder how the crocodile
had passed the waterfall to get to the river where it had been spotted a time ago and where it is now. Anyway, we enjoyed there water, lunch and butterflies.
no, this was not meant by crocodile!
.yes , you got it – a Chinese waterdragon!
A little bit unexpected was the Samba deer standing on a traffic island in the middle between cars coming from all over, and enjoying the apparently especially delicious grass there.
We went home, making a stop a “Dairy home”, an organic and social enterprise of Thailand, selling also other organic products and having things in mind like carbon footpring, sustainability and local production.
http://dairyhome.co.th/en/tablet/index.php
The second stop was in Bangkok for dinner in a big shopping mall. There were crowds of people in front of every restaurant and you had to get a number and wait for a free table. So did we at Sizzler. This is an American company with restaurants mainly in Western US and in some east-Asian countries between Thailand and Japan. They have a big salad buffet (extended to soups, fruits and desserts) based on the all-you-can-eat principle. This is a bit dangerous for me, because I want to try everything and then take more of my best choices and soon “all you can eat” turns to “eat more than you can/should eat”.
At least, I still could walk.
We went home and before I could wonder about where I would sleep, Pat explained that she would bring me to a friend’s home, because she wanted to offer me a better place than she can at home.
So, she brought me to an apartment house and I got a big, beautiful room and still I am not sure about this friend or if Pat had rent that room for me…