Khao Nang Phanthurat Forest Park is a lovely little nature park just 5km north-west of the seaside resort town of Cha'am in Thailand. Established in 1999 as a Royal initiative designed to rehabilitate and preserve the limestone landscape, it's doing a great job.
I recently camped there overnight with a friend. There is no accommodation but camping is free with toilets and showers available. There is also a coffee shop open from 8am to 4pm and an overnight security guard keeping an eye on things. Non-campers are supposed to leave the park by 5pm but they seem quite relaxed about that rule.
It's a very picturesque spot with a pleasant grassy area surrounded by rocky limestone hills. Most visitors stick to the carefully managed, garden-like, grassy amphitheatre with all of its great photo-opportunities of swings and flowers. But there is also a mildly challenging 2.5km nature trail which has two excellent viewpoints with panoramas of the stunning hills and surrounding flat landscape. A lot of work has gone into making these footpaths as easy as possible but it is still steep and awkwardly rocky in places.
We arrived mid-afternoon and after a quick iced-coffee hiked around the trail. It would be a very hot and sweaty trek to do in the middle of the day so early mornings or late afternoons are by far the best times.
Along the way there are various points of interest giving a hint of how the local history and folklore fits into the landscape. People have used the area for many generations and left their mark in names and tales. The principal local legend revolves around the giantess, Nang Phanthurat, who could take human form but ended up dying of a broken heart. Several places around this site play a role in her story including where she was cremated and where she used to eat elephants! The tale was inspired by the whole mountain looking from a distance like a giant lying down.
The trail goes through the native limestone forest which has patches of tall, shady trees plus more open sections of bamboo clumps. There are a lot of plants such as pricky pear not seen in other Thai habitats giving the area a distinctive character.
With luck and patience there is also a good range of wildlife to see. Long-tailed macaques are the easiest as they often hang around the road and buildings but there is a strict policy of not allowing anybody to feed them. Without this attitude they could easily become disruptive, intimidating and unhealthy. These monkeys are common around many temples and tourist spots in Thailand so it's nice to get to see them in their more natural habitat.
The harder to find dusky langur can also be found quite easily at this site. It's a more lanky monkey which usually stays in the trees and wears white spectacles.
The wildlife highlight for us was a tiny long-nosed vine snake that froze in the middle of the path when we came along. It's a harmless species and posed nicely for a few photographs before delicately sliding away.
Any limestone area like this has caves and one of them used to be open to the public but unfortunately it has now been closed for safety reasons. I would have loved to have gone inside but I also appreciate the benefit of not disturbing the cave's fauna. Elsewhere other interesting wildlife has been found such as the very rare fishing cat and the goat-like serow. The chances of seeing either are very remote but knowing they still survive here is wonderful.
After our walk we set up camp knowing that the macaques would now be heading to their sleeping sites rather than investigating ours. My friend had a tent while I used a hammock-with-mosquito-net slung between trees. There is no food available so we had brought our own and had a pleasant outdoor meal of Thai curries only slightly bothered by mosquitoes.
Before going to bed we had a short walk around to see things by torch-light. Then I drifted off to sleep listening to the background music of amphibians and night-birds.
Early morning we snacked on bananas for breakfast and walked the nature trail for a second time. One of the park rules is not allowing any pets but strangely the office has a couple of free-roaming dogs who decided to join us on the trail. They were pleasant company although one looked a bit unfit and in general dogs aren't very helpful when hoping to see wildlife! In places the limestone has very sharp edges and I was worried about their paws suffering but they both made it all the way around and I'm sure that wasn't their first circuit.
A soon-to-be-completed addition to Khao Nang Phanthurat is a 10km-long cycle track that will do a complete circuit around the base of the mountain. It should be an excellent little route once open and will hopefully set a good example for elsewhere in Thailand to copy.
Before leaving we enjoyed another leisurely coffee with the sound of langurs in the background and I made plans to visit again.
