3 November
Today was a wonderful day. A wonderful day of solitude and adventure. After nearly 3 weeks of waiting for the weather etc., I finally got around to doing what I had planned to do when I first came here – explore the cliffs and beaches of Krabi by motorbike.
First, I headed for Shell Fossil Beach. This is a pretty beach with a curve of golden sand. The big boulders on this beach are made up of thousands of small fossils some 35 million year old. Rather disappointingly, they are all some kind of shell creatures. It would have been nice to have had a few dinosaurs thrown in….
The best part of the trip though was getting there. The roads are very good, of European standard, with clean air and little traffic. A motorbike is the best way to appreciate it. Some of the scenery I drove through was simply staggering, with towering walls of lush jungle, sheer limestone cliffs hundreds of metres high, sudden and stunning glimpses of the ocean. It was impossible to capture such big scenery on my camera.
After the Shell Fossil Beach, I drove to Ao Nang. Ao Nang is a very northern European orientated beach resort, full of clean-limbed, wholesome looking Scandinavian types walking purposely along the long promenade on their way from the beach to yoga.
I stopped for a coffee and sat on the sea wall under a tree. The wind started to blow and waves began to build. Leaves from the tree above fell on my head. To the east, a storm was brewing. I watched the dark rain clouds build on the not so distant mountains and knew that the torrential rain would reach me before I had a change to return to Krabi town.
Mina rang and told me that she’d got on the wrong boat this morning and had ended up in Phuket instead of Krabi. So now she was on a bus from Phuket and was going to come and see me instead. But, she said, I needn’t worry. She was only going to spend one night with me and then would go to Ton Sai or Samui and would leave me in peace etc.
It began to rain, heavy spots the size of marbles. I hurried to my motorbike, put my mobile into a plastic bag and stowed it safely under the seat. I knew I hadn’t a chance of outrunning the rain. I started the engine and headed home. Within five minutes, the skies opened up into a full on tropical downpour. I got soaked.
Today was a wonderful day. A wonderful day of solitude and adventure. After nearly 3 weeks of waiting for the weather etc., I finally got around to doing what I had planned to do when I first came here – explore the cliffs and beaches of Krabi by motorbike.
First, I headed for Shell Fossil Beach. This is a pretty beach with a curve of golden sand. The big boulders on this beach are made up of thousands of small fossils some 35 million year old. Rather disappointingly, they are all some kind of shell creatures. It would have been nice to have had a few dinosaurs thrown in….
The best part of the trip though was getting there. The roads are very good, of European standard, with clean air and little traffic. A motorbike is the best way to appreciate it. Some of the scenery I drove through was simply staggering, with towering walls of lush jungle, sheer limestone cliffs hundreds of metres high, sudden and stunning glimpses of the ocean. It was impossible to capture such big scenery on my camera.
After the Shell Fossil Beach, I drove to Ao Nang. Ao Nang is a very northern European orientated beach resort, full of clean-limbed, wholesome looking Scandinavian types walking purposely along the long promenade on their way from the beach to yoga.
I stopped for a coffee and sat on the sea wall under a tree. The wind started to blow and waves began to build. Leaves from the tree above fell on my head. To the east, a storm was brewing. I watched the dark rain clouds build on the not so distant mountains and knew that the torrential rain would reach me before I had a change to return to Krabi town.
Mina rang and told me that she’d got on the wrong boat this morning and had ended up in Phuket instead of Krabi. So now she was on a bus from Phuket and was going to come and see me instead. But, she said, I needn’t worry. She was only going to spend one night with me and then would go to Ton Sai or Samui and would leave me in peace etc.
It began to rain, heavy spots the size of marbles. I hurried to my motorbike, put my mobile into a plastic bag and stowed it safely under the seat. I knew I hadn’t a chance of outrunning the rain. I started the engine and headed home. Within five minutes, the skies opened up into a full on tropical downpour. I got soaked.
Here is a close up of the fossil boulders.
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