Phumĭ Kapor

13/01/17

Krati

Today is the day!!!

We're in Krati where the kids still wave to you and the market is predominantly dried fish! Aka not touristy yet. It has three Tuk Tuks but honest it's not big enough for three.

We're up again at 6am (surely soon we're due a lie in!?) as we're off river water dolphin spotting!! Yey!!

So the crack is we're on the Mekong river which runs from
Loas through Cambodia to the sea. And there are these Dolphins called terra waddy Dolphins live in Cambodia and Loas only. There used to be 2000 dolphins in the Mekong and they were pretty well naturally protected as there wasn't much industry in Cambodia. However, the numbers were reduced when the pol pot regime was in power. They were hunted for oil and meat. Many were also caught up when they started doing electric fishing which from what I gather is where they put an electric fence in the water and fry everything.

The dolphin has now attracted the WWF who have a permanent office in this little town. Krati has the largest population of remaining Dolphins. It's good to see the WWF actually out in the field and we saw quite a lot of banners asking people to protect them.

Hopefully this town will experience how Eco tourism can help them, before it's too late for the remaining Dolphins.

Over the last year there have been several found dead though, some due to water pollution.

On the plus side our guide had seen some baby Dolphins which are born at around 7kgs this season, this is especially good as they can only give birth every three years.

They live in 'pods' and the area we are going through has two pods in it at the moment. Because it is dry season and the river is low our guide 'lucky' tells us we have a good chance of seeing them as they stay in the deepest areas of the Mekong during dry season, and many are condensed into one area.

We head out in a large cattle van 7 of us squeezed in along side the kayaks. We drive for 20km to get to the start. Then it's into the river we go.

Noblet and I spend the best part of half an hour deciding how best to deal with a double kayak (used to singles) ... This involved some minor team building (bickering) 😂

Lucky tells us that the river is normally 15m above the water level we are currently at. This means all of the lush islands around us are covered in the 'green season' and explains the houses on stilts!

Paddling along the submerged trees are amazing to look at but the photos don't do them justice! The photos may also be abit below par because I may or may not have trusted noblanos with the paddling 😂

We pull through the trees and some particularly fast water and head to s beach for a swim on one of the little Islands. We have some sticky rice and soya beans wrapped up in bamboo sticks for starters and then some fruit which looked like a mix between a minature kiwi fruit and a bunch of grapes (must find the name!)

When we're in the water we find mineral deposits which look very much like g**d! They're everywhere! Fish come and chew on our feet and skin and we throw in rice which leads to a chomp fest all around us.

Next we're off to see the 🐬

On the way one of the girls sharing a kayack sees something flopping around in the mangrove, it turns out its a catfish caught on a line. Lucy's mate jumps in and pulls in the biggest catfish I've ever seen! It's massive at least 10kg and the lads man handle it into the kayak for sale at the market! We're all in shock and buzzing!

We land on an island, lucky tells us to listen for a snort and then we'll see as much of them as possible. These Dolphins are not like the ones in the sea. They are very mistrustful of humans. They work in groups to breathe, one rests at the bottom for 3 minutes whilst the other swims to the surface, breaths out (you hear a pfffft) then surfaces for about 2/3 seconds before bobbing back down again... All very quick and so difficult to photograph... But they were brilliant!! Swimming all around us.

Then a tourist boat (with an outboard motor) saw where we were and came and docked next to us. The noise of the engine scared many off and hence our mantra... Take the least damaging form of transport where possible!

They came and we went paddling along hoping for some more glimpses.... Then amazingly lucky pointed over and we saw a baby and mother surface, brilliant!!

Some english lads and us avoided eye contact with the shore so we could stay out an extra few minutes, excellent!!

Man: Noblet for managing to take a photo of a dolphin

Donkey: holly for saying the 'camera's broken.... Oh no, I've left the lens cap on'Read more