We're getting more time to explore Steung Kach and Phnum 1,500, and it's a combination of waterfalls and active minefields.
🕵️♀️ Creek Exploring With Monkey-B 🧗♂️
We still haven't moved into yet to our new property on the river, but we are making trips back and forth in the tuk-tuk, and slowly transferring our belongings from the rental room to the cabin in the clouds.
It's already become clear that the first few months will be spent on trash cleanup and erosion control. As we become more and more familiar with the road from Pramaoy to Steung Kach, we've taken some time to explore some potential roadside attractions.
The river behind "our property" (still can't get used to saying that) has 6 creeks flowing into it, and we're so high up in the mountains that our stretch might be the first swimmable location, likely due to all these creeks. Monkey-B and I have the same attitude about this place, it's a goldmine of potential aquatic exploration activities.
Big sister Srey-Yuu loves the river and creeks too, but she's mostly interested in the swimming pool, and also backs out of most photo ops, so that's why you see her as the tiny yellow figure in the background in many of these shots.
I'm still in disbelief at the beauty of our surroundings, and we are in a race to leave the rental room and "urban life" behind. Pramaoy once seemed like a little outpost town, and now when we return from the mountain, Pramaoy feels like a big urban sprawl full of noise and chaos.
🌊 The Struggle Is Real 🪨
Algae-covered rocks are a serious threat to Monkey-B, but she insisted on joining me as I walked around and tried to see exactly how many creeks fed into the river.
Srey-Yuu sometimes ends up in a photo if she doesn't know I'm ready for the shot, and the above pic was one I captured of her in a pensive mood. Water features are such great places for reflection and deep thought.
🚫 You Can't Have Your Cake & Eat It Too 🎂
And then there's the landmines, which brings me to the expression "You can't have your cake and eat it too." In this case the landmines and heavenly surroundings are interlaced with active minefields, of which I hope all are marked. A former (Khmer Rouge) soldier I was talking to the other day told me that when he planted mines he didn't even bother to put them on or near the trails because the Vietnamese were too scared to use pre-existing paths.
He told they would often put mines in the most difficult to access places because that's where the Vietnamese soldiers liked to travel. Needless to say I won't be exploring too much on the backside of the river until I can verify it's mine status. That brings me to the sign in the above photo, this one from the HALO Trust, stating that this road leads to an active minefield.
Sites like these and also the bright red skull and crossbones flags that come with dot the roadside almost as much as the waterfalls. Land-mines are such a brutal weapon, so sad to know the mountain areas is where some of the most intense fighting and minelaying happened.
Another More Modern Threat 🚯
Along with landmines, Cambodian tourists are a real threat to natural surroundings, mostly due to their littering habits. All the roadside waterfalls are filled with trash, so sad, and it leaves puzzled as to how someone could marvel at nature and then toss a beer cans and styrofoam into the waterfall and hit the road.
We usually pick up the most obvious trash when we stop at these sites, but it's like a drop in the ocean, and the harder you look the more trash you find.
Monkey-B made a photo request at this mini waterfall stop, and I would like to request that she stop growing up too fast.
She even wanted to do a deep reflection shot, but trust me, it's all fake. She hit me right after this and called me "Papa Farts," but you can't have your cake and eat it too, right?
We hit the road again back to Pramaoy, happy with our short time spent at Steung Kach and Phnum 1,500. The descent from the mountain is full of switchbacks and views of the valley below, very captivating, and it almost makes me feel like a good photographer.
That's all I got for now folks, we're actually all a little under the weather at the moment, hunkered down with runny noses and lots of sneezing, but stay tuned for more updates.....
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