Day 102 - 105: Ban Lung & Kratie/Phnom Penh

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Disaster struck the beginning of our Cambodian adventure. We were heading to the North-East town of Ban Lung to visit a National Park and this required a change of buses in a village called Stung Treng. Lewis unfortunately disembarked the first bus leaving his wallet which included is iPhone, passport and some dollars. While we were able to contact the bus company it appears nobody was honest enough to hand it in.

As we had arrived in Ban Lung we organised a day trek which was to prove one of the most challenging and exhausting treks we have attempted. The journey through the Cambodian forests and jungles lasted 7 hours and our helpful guide Jack educated us in local farm life showing us herbs such as 'sour-leaf' and pineapples that grow in the ground. We were treated to lunch by a waterfall where we swung tarzan-style on vines into the refreshing pools.

The next day, with Lewis needing a visit to the British Consulate in Phnom Penh the team split up with Dave & Louise heading to Kratie in the hope of seeing the rare Irrawaday dolphins and the others heading to the capital.

Kratie was a small town by the Mekong with very little going on except for normal local life and a chance to see some of the rarest mammals on the continent. We headed out onto the Mekong on a longboat and such was our luck the sky greyed and it began to rain. We motored up stream for about 30 minutes and our spirits were beginning to dampen and our hope of seeing these fabled creatures was diminishing. Another 10 minutes later our boatman pulled up along side a small island in the middle of the river and pointed to a point in the river where the sky was beginning to clear. It was one of the most fantastic moments we've ever expierenced as around 7 dolphins were swimming only 20 metres away from where we were docked in a small pool lit up by the sunset.

All passport problems have now been sorted for Lewis and a re-group is now planned and everyone will be arriving in Siem Reap over the next couple of days to explore the eighth wonder of the world that are the Temples of Angkor Wat.

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