The walks & waterfall
With limited time we decided to only visit one waterfall that was a short walk from the carpark. Along the way we spotted some big and small lizards and a few mushrooms on fallen logs. Being December and not the wet season, the waterfall was drier and we were able to walk right behind the curtain of water into the little rocky cove. Despite Leonardo Dicaprio jumping into the pools of this exact waterfall in the movie ‘The Beach’, swimming is not actually allowed.
After seeing pictures of what we thought were flocks of toucans at the visitor centre, my friend decided it was going to be her goal for the day to spot at least one (they were actually Great Hornbills). We were always looking up when we heard rustling in the trees to see if there was one. With no luck, we drove to a lookout in the late afternoon hoping to catch them flying back to the large trees where many of them were photographed. We stood there looking patiently but nothing, walked to the next lookout and apart from gangs of monkeys – nothing. No luck today, we thought. Having seen an elephant, deers, lizards and monkeys we were already pretty satisfied, but out of nowhere on our second walk to Nong Phak Chi Wildlife Watching Tower two hornbills swooped down into the low trees next to us. List ticked, goal achieved!
By 6.30 pm we were out of the park, very tired but very content. It was a full day filled with many lucky encounters that we were all very grateful for and it’s definitely a place I would like to come back to explore more on a longer trip.