Ultimate

The Mangrove Nature Trail

Into the Mangroves

Real ife nature on the trail.  I did not get a phot of the big-ass snake.

On this, the ultimate day of 2013, I went where the whims of the travel gods took me. The course of one's journey hangs by the finest of threads, events hinging on the most minute choices. When I fall into the delusion that I control the course of life, I am often quickly reminded that the entire course of an existence can pivot on the slightest occurence. Whether Chthonic or divine, the agents of fate have been known to blast my strongly held concepts of free choice and self-determination into the smallest of bits.

Everything I touched today turned to something else. By acknowledging that events were far beyond my control, the day flowed form one scene to another, blissfully unaware of my plans.

I walked out of Trat, heading south towards the Gulf of Thailand. I was heading for a mangrove restoration and preservation area which has a walkway out into the mangrove swamps. This is important if you want to visit a mangrove swamp and you are not either a mudskipper or a snake. The mangroves are utterly impassable.

I had been needing a nice long walk to unkink my laziness of the last few days. Twelve klicks, while a death march for most Thai, is a mere bagatelle for a dedicated walker. I found the mangrove preserve and had the place utterly and completely to myself except for two Dags that did require a stone or two. Shady and solitary, I saw some sort of bittern that darated amongst the mangrove roots, countless lizards and other scuttling things, and one damn big snake. Fortunately it was below the walkway and I was up on the walkway. This serpent was at least three feet long and fast. The other wiggly was a five inch long millepede that was truly fearsome looking, but still only five inches long.

Walking back was not to be. The Thai do not understand walking if it does not involve food or shopping. I had not gone two hundred meters before I was offered a ride. The folks were so nice I could not refuse. They hauled me partway to town and, before I could even get up a head of steam to continue, another car stopped for me. It would have been rude to refuse and they were getting a kick out of picking up a poor farang.

There was more to the day and there will be more to this post.......