Canoeing to Tatai

I needed this at the end of our canoeing visit to the Tatai Waterfall

This is the view I had during our adventure, a tranquil river view and the back of Tim's head

I have so many photos and stories to post about my trips and adventures over the last few months, that there is a real danger I will forget many of them. For example, I spent nearly a week in and around Koh Kong (on the southern coast of Cambodia) before my birthday and that was closely followed by my trip to Isaan in NE Thailand. So to ensure I keep the Koh Kong trip in mind, here's some photos from a 3-hour canoe trip my brother Tim and I did on the afternoon of our arrival at Rainbow Lodge, an eco-friendly set of bungalows, just a little upstream from national highway 48 and the bridge at Tatai village. The owner of Rainbow is Janet and after she made us a bite to eat, we made good use of the lodge's two-man canoe. Tim sat in the front, I tagged along at the back, and we set off for a paddle along the tranquil Kep and Tatai Rivers. Our target was the Tatai Waterfall, which because we were at the back-end of the rainy season, would be in full flow. It took us about 45 minutes of fairly leisurely paddling to reach the waterfall. During that time on the river we saw no-one else and had only bird-calls for company. The water level was high and the waterfall itself stretches across the river, making quite a loud racket and not allowing us to get too close, because of the swell, and my desire not to get dumped into the water. Both Tim and I aren't great swimmers (or canoeists) and even wearing life jackets, I wasn't taking any chances of getting too close. The forest comes right down to the water's edge and rather than get out of the canoes and try to get a closer look at the waterfall, we decided to take a look at a couple of much smaller falls we'd noticed on our paddle upstream. During the dry season, the main waterfall is much less dramatic and swimming in some of the small pools is easily done I'm told. We carried on our adventure, regularly stopping for a breather because I have discovered that I am totally unfit, and made it back to Rainbow before dark, three hours after we'd begun. It reminded me of our kayaking session in Laos a year before, though we emerged considerably less wet from this one.

Where's the riverbank - as the forest comes right to the river's edge

Tatai Waterfall from a safe distance to avoid the swell

It doesn't look too dangerous but the current and swell was pretty strong and carried us downstream as soon as I took this shot

We paddled back upstream to get a bit closer to the waterfall - trying to paddle and take photos wasn't easy

We crossed to the other side of the river for this photo

I'm a big fan of waterfalls but you have to give them the respect they deserve

Another view of the Tatai River, which was like a mill-pond for much of the time

One of the smaller waterfalls we encountered on the Tatai River

The sun came out as I snapped this picture

Yet another smaller waterfall with the stream cascading over a series of rocks

A close-up of the final smaller waterfall en route back to Rainbow Lodge