12 September 2013

As we ate a leisurely breakfast at our marvellous hotel, we caught up with french tourists who had been around for a couple of days and were great for exchanging ideas for daily activities around Krabi.

They had done kayaking the afternoon before at Ao Thalane and thoroughly enjoyed it. Their enthusiasm convinced us to try it and we headed out on the afternoon tour after having found a travel agent who was actually willing to sell us an afternoon tour.  The problem was that they were worried we would have to get out and push the kayaks at certain places because of the very low tide but we convinced them to at least let us have a go!

There were only 7 of us all together on the tour (4 of us, another couple and a guide) and this was so much better than being stuck in a large group of noisy tourists while trying to enjoy the nature around us.

The first 20 minutes was in the hot sun as we paddled down the wide lagoon towards the ocean before taking a left to go back into a mangrove river and upstream.   From the lagoon we could see Hong Island in the distance (another day trip we had considered doing but ran out of time).  There were also fisherman standing waist deep in the lagoon catching fish.  Our guide said they were commercial fisherman and could be found here most days.

As we entered the mangrove river, we suddenly found ourselves in a quiet, calm stream with shade provided by the sheer cliffs rising up out of the water.  At the base of the cliffs were mangrove trees and muddy banks sticking out because of low tide.  We were mesmerized by the majestic beauty of this place.

We spotted monitor lizzards, mud-skippers and crabs from the first minute.  There were also amazing plants and jungle settings high up on the cliffs.  Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any monkeys but our guide assured us that they were watching us from hidden places at the tops of the cliffs.  The sun danced on the water where it could reach it and the shady spots allowed us to notice the smaller creatures in the water and the muddy patches.

Our entertaining guide caught a couple of crabs and mud-skippers for us to get a close up and explained a little about the environment and habits of these little mangrove creatures. The funniest moment was when my sister was looking into the 500ml bottle containing a mudskipper to see the turquoise spots on his brown skin when he jumped right out of the bottle almost into her eye. Shrieks of surprise and then laughter broke into the quiet surrounds while we all recovered.  Life-long fear of mudskippers begins in 3,2,1….

We had stuffed some Subway sandwiches into our backpacks (best decision ever!) and enjoyed a little picnic on our kayaks when we could go no further up the stream.  Despite the low tide, we did not get stuck and had a great view of all the little mangrove crabs and fish which we wouldn’t normally have seen in high tide.

Photos could not capture the essence of this place.  Beautiful, completely untouched, thriving with life and yet also accessible to those who want to experience it.

The afternoon ended with a little bit of fun as our guide showed us a small hole in the rock, “the cave” that we could kayak through by lying back so as not to bump our heads.  The best thing about this little activity was watching the other couple in our group attempt to do this about 3 or 4 times without success!  They could not keep the kayak straight! Eventually after a little skill lesson from our guide and lots of encouragement from the rest of us, they made it through! Such fun!

What a great afternoon!