Carr on foot with Goose: The final part of Cambodia

Monkey Island
A great couple of days chilling out. The boat over was rather rough, and even though we have pretty sturdy stomachs, after 2 hours it didn't matter how much we looked at the horizion are stomachs had truely started to go. Luckily we arrived before paper bags were required. We had our own bamboo hut right on the beach, which we thought was idylic until we were visited by the biggest of spiders and a bird that flew in. On the first full day we trekked over the top of the island to the other side where we were tole the beach was even more breath taking. The trek took us up up and up, in very hot weather. Luckily it levelled off at the top through the woods. The descent was practically vertical and we clung to boulders and branches as we wove our way down. At the bottom when we were at our sweatiest and not wanting to see anyone we passed through another resort cafe full of people, we must have looked lush! The trek however was fully worth it! the sea was crystal clear for miles out, and the beach was deserted. the only visitors we had were sandflies that had lunch on us! We had another night back in Sihanoukville after the two nights on the island before heading to kampot.

Kampot
Kampot is a small town east of Sihanoukville and further inland. We really liked it as the people are really nice, it is chilled out and there are less tourists. On the first day we were there, we hired bikes and cycled to olly's bungalows a belgium run guesthouse where you can hire out paddle boards for free. We went expecting to cruise down the river on boards you lie on, we were wrong. These you stood. We were like two newborn dears when we first stood up. However, after alot of wobbling and a few falls, we soon got the hang of it. Later we cycled further out into the country side and on our way back, further up stream from the paddle boarding, we hired a traditional canoe. Annoyingly rick couldn't get the hang of it, so to avoid bumping down the river bank, i did the paddling. There was only one paddle, so by the end i did feel like one armed popeye!

On the second day we went on a tour, just the two of us and a driver to Kep. A quiet seaside resort 40 minutes along the coast from kampot. We got a boat over to Rabbit Island (sadly no rabbits) where we had time to chill out on the beach and have lunch. We then went to a pepper plantation, as the Kampot province is famous for its high quality of pepper (apparently). The best part of the day was the last part. We went to a limestone cave. When we arrived we were surrounded by boys all wanting to be our guide in the cave. We ended up with 5 young boys, all of whom spoke good english. They took us into the mouth of the cave first, for a look around, and pointed out different animals that had formed over the years, some were convincing others you really had to use your imagination for! As we didn't have a torch, we scrambled down and through the cave only by the light from one of their mobile phones. They scaled down the cave with ease leaving rick and I struggling. They were really funny and we had great banter with them (as Sophia would say). They really made the trip!