Pha Taem to Khong Chiam

April 29, 2016

We had our normal early start and were through the gates of the Pha Taem National Park soon after six o'clock this morning.

It was cloudy and dark and birding was quite difficult. In fact, the two walks we took with birding in mind were mostly a waste of time. Nonetheless, we picked up a lifer in Dusky Crag-Martin and had a few sightings of birds I hadn't expected to see here.

The rock formations in Pha Taem are really interesting with pillars of rock called sao cha liang consisting of rocks whose two sections ages differ by 50 million years.

The main attraction though is the rock art with 4 main panels of paintings, the age of which there appears to be no certainty. Estimates vary from 1000 to 4000 years old. We were keen to see them to compare them to the San rock art that is found in southern Africa, which is spread over period from about 20,000 years ago until as recent as the 19th century.

It seems that the rainy season is slowly approaching with a good storm late yesterday afternoon and another one this morning. Today's storm caught us out as we were leaving the Pha Taem rock art sites (Pha Taem apparantly means rock art).

Caught out in the rain - but look at the wording on that sign !BTW, if anyone is worried that we always seem to be wearing the same clothes (one of our friend's has remarked that Leigh's wardrobe seems limited), we do our laundry every day and seem to have settled on some favourites from our choice of three outfits.

After lunch at one of the bus tourist oriented restuarants (garlic pork and rice) we made our way down to Khong Chiam and settled in with a Beer Chang and Sprite at the Ban Pak Mool guest house slightly up the Mon River and away from the noise along the Mekhong riverfront. Good value at 500 baht, clean, neat and well located.

The little wire bicycle has now covered most of Thailand along the Mekhong with just the 180 kms from Chai Khong to Nong Khai missing.

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 2,175 km (1,351 miles)

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