Description
Episode two of several unreleased episodes from our adventures from South Western Australia to Northern Scotland by road between 2017 and 2021. Released at the time to our very supportive Patreon community; now for all to view as shot and edited in the back of the Troopy was back then, hopefully filling in a few gaps in the journey. The rest of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and China to come! Cheers
2018:
Continuing north our next stop is Krabi, just a short 2 hour drive from Koh Lanta. A little north of Krabi itself we found a place to camp right on the beach with views looking out to the beautiful islands of southern Thailand. We were pretty lucky with this camp spot actually as it’s south facing which means we were really protected from the howling westerly winds. At low tide I was even able to walk out to the closest island where a dozen or so locals were looking for octopus and crabs for dinner.
After a couple of days chilling out here we head off towards Phuket. We had a look at a couple of beaches to park up though we were finding it a bit difficult to find somewhere protected from the wind and away from the hordes of tourists. Feeling a little frustrated at the situation I told Mark we would just stay for the night and leave the next morning. Thankfully Mark suggested we just go for a drive to get some dinner and on the way back to where we planned to camp we spotted a faded handprinted sign saying “beach” with an arrow going down a steep road. Of course we had to follow it!
A quiet, protected beach! I could barely believe it!! We went for a quick walk up a dirt track and just 50 or so metres from the car we found 2 ELEPHANTS!! With my newfound friends and a great place to park up, my grumpy attitude quickly disappeared and I was feeling much happier about spending a day or two here.
A couple of hours drive north of Phuket is Ratchaprapha Dam. Ringed by jungle-clad mountains and dramatic limestone formations, this man-made dam is breathtaking. Amazingly though, this massive lake didn’t exist before the 1980’s! The hydroelectric dam was built to provide electricity for Surat Thani and other parts of southern Thailand. As part of the wider Cheow Larn project, the dam and reservoir were constructed for flood control, irrigation and fishing.
We’d been chatting previously online with Jonas and Vroni, a German couple who are cycling from Australia to Germany. We decided to meet and spend a night camping together and then spend the day out on the lake. You can follow their journey at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJOFJoCMHJLgn626aqJc0RQ
Thanks for watching! In the next episode we’ll continue north to Hua Hin, Bangkok and Koh Chang before crossing over to Cambodia!