The story of the "survival" expert Oleg Gegelsky about the trip to the highest point of Kam
Phnom Oral is the highest peak in Cambodia - 1813 meters above sea level. It is located in the eastern part of the Kravanh mountain range, in the province of Kampong Spa. This is the same province where the very palm trees grow, from which the world-famous palm sugar is extracted, which has been awarded the highest level of world recognition - the prestigious GI (Geographical Indicator) status. There are only two such products in Cambodia. The second one is also the world famous Kampot pepper.
Why should you definitely go to this mountain? There are several weighty reasons: because this is the highest point in this country and putting a tick in front of this item is a matter of honor for any self-respecting traveler - this is the first time.
Because on the slopes of this mountain, due to their rather difficult passability, an untouched primary forest has been preserved with all the ensuing consequences. As some sources write - wild elephants and tigers...Well, that's unlikely, but even without them there is something to see and it won't be boring : ) than sparrows in the Phnom Penh market.
This place is located in a more convenient place for quick access than the primary forests of distant provinces, which are tens of hours away. This is two.
This mountain has everything to get a lot of positive emotions, and this ascent has become a real adventure that you will remember for a lifetime - I guarantee you. This is three.
And one more thing - there is something on this mountain ...it is not in vain that monks and laity go here, despite the fact that climbing it is not so easy.
Contemplation of the petrified brain on the top of Mount Phnom Oral. Thoughts about the past, current thoughts, well, etc. , etc. , etc. , a. b. in. g. d. , oklmn ...In short - everything that is supposed to be the climber at the top.
Buddhist temple, in a village on a plain, from which, in fact, you can start a long route in the style of "EXPEDITION". A good starting point is speaking like this...
Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… Stacks… The first thing that catches the eye is countless the number of stacks of mahogany - in each!! ! practically backyard.
That's how many Khmer forest villages you drive, how many of these stacks you see...
Mahogany is in very high demand in the Asian and Eastern markets. "Thanks" to this demand in Cambodia soon there will be no valuable breeds of these wonderful works of nature. Behind these trees, and now you need to break through the wilds of the jungle knows where, but the Khmers are a hardworking people and very poor - multiplying the first by the second and another $ 2.000 per cube, you understand that valuable breeds have little left to live with...come, look, you can touch - soon this will not be in nature ...
Local kids, as always, are smart, curious, colorful, positive, stylish : ) This says something about their parents...
On the way along the foothills, through the fields of reed plantations...Clean, fragrant air that you want to drink in sips, bottomless blue above your head, omnipresent positive - some kind of universal serenity begins to fill the whole being...memories - damn it, but for the sake of this it’s worth shuffling across half the globe ...
It so happened that this is the only photo in which Phnom Oral peak is visible - this is that little notch on the central ridge : ) The rest of the time clouds "sat" at the peak.
Fording the first water obstacle - a very picturesque, classic jungle stream with milky-warm water.
Those who wandered these rivers know this feeling, when you reach a stream, you want to sit in it and sit forever. It's just to sit stupidly, look around lazily and not want anything : ) Leaving such a river is like spitting out your favorite lollipop that has just sucked. Okay, they grabbed a positive one, slapped on ...
The first local animal : )
In Cambodia, I am very lucky with caves: I find them all the time...Sometimes I find them where the locals have passed many times. Am I a caveman?
There is a rather complicated approach to this cave: you need to go down 5 meters on slippery stones, then go up. To the right and left are sheer walls. There was little time, so I left the examination "for later": I think she is not alone there.
There are a lot of such places in the jungle in the bamboo thickets, where there is everything to quickly build a long-term shelter and organize a bivouac with a fire. If you know how. And you know how. Although ...out of fright, you can also build something quite usable. But you need to keep in mind - these places are well known and loved by all local living creatures - flying, running, and crawling. But we know how to resist this, right? If not, there is nothing to roam the jungle without me : )
Overnight. Behind me is a classic version of organizing a bivouac with a hammock and a regular army poncho as an awning.
The backpack contains two devices from the main equipment list that are always with me: a hydrator and a water filter. Both products are made by my very favorite manufacturer Platypus
And if a hydrator is still back and forth, can be attributed to professional delights, then a water filter ...it is difficult to overestimate its totemness where the path is laid from source to source, and the quality of water in the sources causes various gloomy thoughts.
Land crab. Food.
Further and further, deeper and deeper...More and more interesting and exciting...
Here, someone already had a halt - even the polyethylene was stretched ...What we took advantage of, especially since it began to rain ...And in the rainy season, any "began to drip" can turn into a downpour with meter visibility and violently rushing down the slopes with carrying streams everything is in its path. At least the tractor can carry 50 meters down the slope.
Unidentified caterpillar. Dangerous? Not dangerous?
I always say this: ®everything that you see and cannot identify with 100% accuracy, consider it dangerous. And I repeat one of my favorite jokes, which in one of the options sounds like this: ®be afraid: let your friends neigh you 100 times than relatives cry once.
We went to the "dacha" of the forest Khmers. Here we were joined by two guides who were with us for the next two days.
Wow, there is the top of Phnom Oral...there must be. Only a cloud sits on it. But she is there, stopudovo, we saw : )
All the way, while walking, we saw the top in the clouds and prepared for the fact that it would constantly pour on the mountain.
Photo "for show off" with "Men's health" magazine - the main men's magazine in the whole world (I wonder how it got here) and some kind of pointer somewhere in Khmer.
I hope there, on the sign, there is nothing so ...obscene, or something else ...
The road looks like this. Quite harmless. But you can drive along it exclusively on an agricultural motoblock or on special equipment. Such roads are a paradise for endurists, ATVs and other respected swamp riders : ) There are hundreds of kilometers of them here, these roads are different - for every taste.
The same road, depending on the season, may look like the photo above,
Or maybe it looks like this...By the way, a keffiyeh, a very beautiful spear-headed snake, has just plopped into the water from this branch. They lead mainly a nocturnal lifestyle, and during the day they rest, hiding in hollows, nests, cracks in the bark, ON BRANCHES AMONG THE LEAVES. So, when moving through the jungle, you need to not only look where you put your foot, but also what we grab onto with our hands.
We also carefully examine the branches hanging above the path from above and leaning towards the path on the sides. You can’t run through the jungle for at least two reasons: you will see more and you will be more alive : )
Here it is, that same logging "road".
Tasting Khmer "self-garden". Khmers smoke tobacco grown in their gardens, wrapped in a leaf. Depending on the leaf and "tobacco", the effect may be different...Those who have tried it say it's cool. I have not smoked for 10 years. But I also tried. Once again I was convinced - well done, that I quit.
At the parking lot there was a night prey: a chic specimen of a centipede. Was caught by the stream, after dusk. Such a thing, if it bites, will not seem a little: three or four days of hellish pain at the site of the bite and high temperature is provided.
And if you are allergic to protein poisons, then there may be the same consequences as after a bite from a poisonous snake. Therefore, without me, it’s better not to rummage through the jungle at night : ) This is the time.
Secondly: all these "biters" have one amazing ability that unites them: to scurry somewhere, to some hidden place and pretend that they are not there. Therefore, I try to ensure that everyone who leaves my route remembers for the rest of their lives: "any item of your property that you left on the ground unattended for more than 10 seconds. (shoes, backpack, clothes, a bag of food, etc. ) and having internal volumes or folds, you should first inspect visually, gently shake, shake out, if it's dark - shine a flashlight, and only after that put your hands on it, put your hands on it , , on the leg, etc.
In my hands is my favorite hiking mug - a coconut shard with tea from herbs and leaves pulled right there, around the camp. Nearby is the guide "Mr. Roma", an amazing connoisseur of the local flora and fauna. The merry fellow and the joker.
That's interesting - how can you live life and never sit like this - with Roma near the fire, with a coconut shard in which herbal jungle tea is brewed? How?
I do not understand.
By the way, on the conductor, as the lower part of the clothes (instead of pants), there is a Khmer scarf wrapped around the belt. They wear it like this during their holidays, when they are not busy with hard work.
Very practical: everything is ventilated, resting...True, you need to get used to the idea that, like a pleasant breeze under such a "kilt", so does all the "biting" living creatures in the area, also have direct access to your...uh-uh ...to your ...in general, unprotected areas of the most delicate skin.
By the way, who knows, he will understand me: in some parts of the world, teaching local guys to use a radio station and drive an infantry fighting vehicle is much easier than teaching them to wear trousers and walk in boots : )
In the same place, by the stream in the evening, two quite well-fed frogs and a crab were also caught. Everything was cooked according to the classical canons and reverently eaten by the adherents of the science of survival (the list of adherents, I do not publish for ethical reasons).
On the left in the photo - Richard, a Frenchman : ) he is a cook and owner of a cafe in Siem Reap, so I think you should not doubt the quality of the prepared products ...
A classic of the genre: an exemplary - indicative picture (can be placed in a textbook) on organizing an overnight stay in the jungle with a hammock. We pay attention to the attachment points of the bed, mosquitoes and poncho as an awning (regular NATO, trophy), this is a multiplication table for using a hammock and poncho. In case of heavy rains and stormy gusts of wind, the attachment point of the awning should be two times lower along the trunk ...and two more storm guy lines are added to the awning. Well, and of course - do not forget that the awning is not attached to the tree by the eyelets - it is only pulled through them along the rope stretched between the trees.
I think everything is clear, how is it done?
If not, you are welcome to our hut, I will teach you directly on the ground.
There are many traces of fires from lightning strikes everywhere in the jungle. In the mountains, they are simply unmeasured - sometimes every 5-10 meters. Whoever fell into a thunderstorm with lightning in the mountains knows. I hit especially hard a couple of times: there was a complete feeling of targeted mortar shelling - with a whistle, with a vile hiss, sharp slaps, flashes, and explosions, jerking the brain into atoms. This is where knowledge and skills on this topic (a thunderstorm in the mountains) can specifically cost a life. Do you have this knowledge? I have.
View of the valley from halfway up the mountain. Somewhere from there, from the horizon, we slapped here : ) View into the valley from halfway up the mountain. Somewhere out there, from the horizon, we slapped here : )
Porcupine needle.
It would be a little more time, it would be possible to hunt: the porcupine is quite easy prey, easy to cook and the meat is tasty and quite nutritious.
