The Mountain and the Sea

The town of Kep lies between a small mountain range and the sea, so as expected, most of the activities relate to one or the other.

Yesterday, we took a boat from Kep to Rabbit Island for a day trip.

The Island doesn't have rabbits as the name suggests; instead  it's the shape of the Island floating above the sea that gives it its name. Even though it doesn't have rabbits, it does have simple restaurants, accommodation, and more importantly beaches. Beautiful beaches in small protected coves.

We hiked around a bit, swam in the protected waters, and had a seafood lunch at one of the pleasant, low key beachside restaurants before heading back to the mainland in the afternoon.

This morning, it was time to look to the Mountain and the National Park. There is a series of hiking trails with varying degrees of difficulty. But of course, if you're looking for scenic lookouts, you need to climb, so that's what we did. It was warm and humid as it is most of the time here, so we had a sweat on by the time we hiked the kilometer or so to the trailhead. For the first half hour or so, the trail was good with a gentle grade, but at the first opportunity we branched onto a secondary trail going up. The trail was badly eroded from the rainy season, leaving the footing poor and going tough.

As we've experienced before, hiking a rainforest has its pros and cons, and both relate to the lush vegetation. On one hand, the trail has a nice canopy for shade, but on the other, it's rare to get a scenic look. Most of the viewpoints as they were called were badly grown in, but a few were worth the hike.

While hiking, we kept our eye open for rainforest wildlife, but only saw a few lizards, birds and butterflies. Until near the end, there was mad rustling high in the trees, and a family of monkeys made their way down to just above our level. They appeared curious, but may have just come looking for a handout.

In all, had a pleasant couple of days in Kep, hiking the Bokor Mountain Range and swimming in the South China Sea.

For the next story in this series, click here:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.com/2017/03/sihnoukville-cambodias-link-to-canada.html