Khao Chamao National Park, Thailand

The welcome lady at Khao Chamao National Park certainly has an unusual look about her. I like her attitude.

I recently stayed at this park, 150km south-east of Bangkok, for a night. Apart from being in the presence of some wonderful trees the main attraction of the site is the rocky river tumbling down the mountainside as a series of waterfalls. There is a 2km-long forest trail running alongside the river which gets you up to the 7th waterfall level. In places it is steep and could be slippery in wet weather but the lowest waterfalls and pools are easy to get to and probably offer enough of a great experience for most visitors.

My friend and I arrived in the afternoon and had hoped to walk the trail straight away but found that it is closed at 4pm and opens again at 8am, so we made do with dipping our feet in the lowest pools and getting our toes gently nibbled by the fish.

At this lowest tier there is a shrine to the forest spirits and as this is a National Park it has an emphasis on animals. A simple open building, well-maintained with lots of fresh garlands and an array of statues.

We stayed the night in one of the park's bungalows. Basic but roomy and with air-conditioning. There is also a grassy area amongst the trees with plenty of space for tents. A restaurant provides freshly cooked Thai food plus snacks and drinks (no alcohol allowed in National Parks) but it is only open until 4pm so we had our evening meal in a restaurant a short distance outside the Park entrance. Excellent, full-flavoured, filling food.

The following morning we explored the river properly with a brief stop at the small museum display that included an impressive gaur skull and some of the many weapons and traps confiscated from poachers as a reminder of the on-going struggle to preserve what little wildlife we have left.

Near the start of the trail is this splendid, enormous, spreading tree but unfortunately it's too close to the car-park to have any wildlife in it except an occasional squirrel. It has the look of a tree that a leopard would enjoy.

Throughout the forest are many other beautiful trees most impressive for their sturdy trunks thrusting skywards. Trees of such stature always give me a feeling of being somewhere special.

The trail is easy to follow and a lot effort has been made to make it as accessible as possible without intruding on it being a natural forest.

We were there at the beginning of the dry season so there was a good, steady flow of water. This will decline over the next few months until the rains begin again. In the height of the rainy season the river can quickly change into a raging torrent when the trail is sometimes closed for safety. We could see the power of the waters through some of the enormous fallen tree-trunks wedged amongst the rocks. This one had found a new life as a shortcut.

The Park authority are certainly being careful with trying to look after the safety of both human visitors and animal residents. We didn't see any vipers but did catch a brief glimpse of a harmless racer snake.

One hazard that I didn't see any sign about is rattan. Extremely useful in furniture-making and basketry but with some of the most vicious thorns you could ever find. This forest has a lot of rattan and perhaps there should be a sign warning to always, always check before grabbing hold of any plant for support!

The reasons most people come to visit this lovely park are to admire the waterfalls, swim in the wonderfully refreshing pools (where allowed), and goggle at the golden mahseer fish which can grow quite large and continually patrol the pools. We did all three and can report that, fortunately, only the smallest fish nibble your toes.