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Some of you may recall that I was attacked by a gibbon while doing my trailblazing for my hiking trail of Phuket last year.
I was so worried about going back into his territory that I put it off for over a year.
I wanted to bring some bear (pepper) spray back with me from the US last trip but then found out it is illegal to bring on a plane.

So, I waited and finally bought a small sprayer here in Thailand and went back out there this past week.  Twice.

I had to redo the whole section before the ape as I had accidently  erased the track from my GPS and I do need to have the track complete.   My goal of course, is to create a downloadable track or path so that anyone with a handheld GPS can go out there and hike the trail.
It is far from an easy section and starts with a bushwhack up a very steep mountain with cut bamboo at the top that is a lot like “pickup sticks”.   Very difficult just to get to where I left off from the last section.
Since I’m up in the mountains just to the east of Talang right now, this is by far the wildest portion of the island of Phuket.

So, I went out last week and redid that steep mountain with the bamboo on top and did find a few faint trails on the northern side and eventually got to about 200 meters before the spot where the monkey got me.  (I had marked the spot on the GPS last Feb)

I then found a good trail heading east and took it all the way down to a dirt road about 2 kms before the turn off for Ban Pae waterfall.

So, yesterday I parked my motorbike there (after the pack of 6 or 7 dogs guarding the rubber tree shack there tried their best to get me)  and started back up the trail.    Just before I got to the spot where I came onto this trail, I found a faint trail going right towards the monkey encounter spot.

So, I took a break, got my machete out in one hand and the pepper spray in the other and proceeded very quietly up to the spot.     Guess what?   No monkey today!    I was so glad but, that’s not to say it was uneventful.   About 200 meters past the spot, a swarm of bees seemed to come out of the ground and got me.  I ran and yelled as 2 of them stung me (only) I saw about 15 of them.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

I always see many big spiders while doing my hiking here.  I have found that they are not harmful (at least to me) and I look on them as good luck when I see them and try not to bother their webs.

So, the area is abundant with faint trails as the gibbon rehabilitation people must go in there a lot to put food out or whatever.  I did see a cage with fruit inside at one point.

Sticking with my white track on my GPS (this is my preferred route that I designed on Google Earth 4 years ago that connects all the high mountains via ridges and is my desired trail)    I did my best to use their trails when I could with only about 20% bushwhacking in this area.
A few steep climbs later (and a nice swimming hole), I finally left their area (they use red paint on trees to define paths sometimes)

I was up on top and out of the monkey area and now had to decide what to do.   If I bailed out, back down some of their paths to a road, I would have to come through there again.   I wasn’t at all fond of this area after the attack, and even though I wasn’t properly prepared  (I didn’t have much food), I decided to continue on.
I’m not always the smartest planner and should have realized that this section is the wildest part of the whole island, with no access that I could see on Google Earth but, I continued anyway.

Huge Cicada

Found some trails and one after a while that was right up there on top where I wanted to be.
Came to a junction of trails that seemed recently used that I assumed was a bailout point to the east and the one continueing straight on the ridge, where I wanted the trail to be.
This was probably my worst mistake of the day as I continued on as it was only about 12 noon or maybe 1 PM.

I did find a deep ravine that had water coming out of the rock.  Ah perfect spring and I needed one about now.   Drank the rest of my water and 2 more half-litres and continued.

Good tasting water.

The trail went for about 500 meters and then (of course) petered out.   Bushwhacking again.   What to do.  I wandered around looking for something as I knew I had to go a long way and didn’t want to go back.  (another mistake)
Finally I decided I had to bail out or risk losing daylight.  (plus I was hungry and tired)

According to my GPS, there was a road to the west exactly one km away.   You think that isn’t far until you are bushwhacking down a steep mountain that is thick with vines, sticker bushes and even mud sometimes.  (I figured this mud is made from rootings of wild pigs as I had heard they were prevalant in this area, although I have yet to see one)

Laid my handkerchief on there for scale.

At one point, after a steep slide, trying to stop but not grab thorny vines to slow down, I once again was attacked by a swarm of small bees.   The stings were like a bad jellyfish sting as it was over a square foot area or so.      Once again, I did my best to run away.

I stopped to rest a few times, eating a small portion of my food each time and eventually found a stream that was getting bigger and bigger although it really wasn’t going in the direction I wanted.  I followed it.

A few times it got so thick that I just had to walk in the water and try not to fall down the slippery rocks.  I fell in once and my camera and cell phone got a little wet but, i tried to dry them out right away.   By this point, I was so wet from sweat that the fall in the water didn’t make me any worse except perhaps my shoes were worse.     I was using up all my salt in my body and although I was drinking a lot of water (now that I was following a creek), I would pay for the salt loss later.

Finally about 5 PM, I got to a rubber tree shack and a small dirt track out of there to a road.    
I sat and waited and finally a few motorbikes came and after lots of discussion (they spoke absolutely no English and didn’t seem to understand my Thai) one of them decided to drive me back.
It ended up being about 20 kms back to where my bike was.   The dogs were crazy again but I headed out of there.
Stopped at a restaurant and ordered 2 meals, had a gatorade and ice cream for dessert.

Got home and took 2 magnesium pills and went to bed.  But I couldn’t sleep.  My body  was just cramping up all over.   My neck, hands, legs, feet, even my one finger,  just kept cramping up.    I went out and bought more Gatorade and finally 2 bags of chips for the salt.    Had a fitful night and here I am, still cramping and poor circulation in the morning writing this up.
I hope to go through my camera soon and add some pics to this post.
Thanks for listening.