Tusk masters
Go off the beaten track in Thailand – and have a 99% chance of seeing wild elephants
Look down there,’’ said our guide. ‘‘Through the trees.’’ We gazed down the overgrown path and collectively held our breath. About 600 yards off something moved. A branch? A bird? No, that flash of white was a tusk. A wild elephant.
Spotting elephants in the wild is no exact science. However, Thailand’s Kui Buri National Park – 180 miles south west of the capital Bangkok – offers one of the best chances of success in the world – almost 99 per cent sure, said our guide.
Which had me a bit worried, because this long-distance glimpse wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for. I’d thought that they’d look like, you know…elephants. Was this it?
‘‘We go on,’’ said the guide. Cue collective sigh from those in our safari jeep. Then, around the next bend in a stream, there stood two male elephants eating trunkfuls of vegetation, swatting away heron-like egrets with their big ears.
JACKAL
Wild elephants, just yards away, so close I could see their wrinkles. In fact, they could probably see mine.
Further on we watched a whole
herd, six adults and five calves, crossing a valley.
One baby was separated from the rest by a jackal, but its mother trumpeted the intruder away and the little guy came galumphing back. Nearby, gaur (huge wild cattle) roamed the plain as well.
It was like being in Jurassic Park, with the great, green expanse stretching away to the mountains. I found myself looking out for pterodactyls, but only saw a hornbill.
Don’t, whatever you do, forget your binoculars. The magic thing about Kui Buri is the elephants aren’t there for tourist dollars (like the ones chained up for rides, or being forced to walk tightropes, dance or ride bikes in shows). They live there, free to roam.
Audley Travel is the only UK’S tour operator to offer this safari, which goes to the heart of what the firm does – bespoke travel, tailor-made for each individual booking, and triplechecked by local experts to offer incredible experiences you wouldn’t even know to Google for. Like the bicycle tour of the Chiang Rai countryside in north Thailand, following back roads, tracks and river paths. Taking in the area at cycle speed is a glorious way to explore.
TEMPLE
We stopped to talk to locals in the rice paddies as we passed, photographed the water buffalo, and ended up at Chiang Rai’s sparkling White Temple, which looks like a more ornate version of Queen Elsa’s ice palace in Frozen.
Then there was the trip down the River Kok from Chiang Rai to Fang in a long-tail boat. (Why drive when you can make the journey part of the destination?) It took about four hours to speed down the muddy river, expertly skippered through the eddies and swirls.we passed green hills capped