The Park, rarely open to the public, is supposed to be rainforest containing wildlife inc tiger and elephant. There was an abandoned French era hill station at the summit.
Sadly the guide seems to have been written 10 years ago and the granting of a 99 year concession to a company to exploit tourism and mineral rights, together with poaching and illegal logging, have taken their toll.
Also, it being Chinese New Year's day, one quarter of the 30,000 population of Kampot seem to have had the same idea. The place was heaving They spread out mats for opulent picnics wherever there was space and where there was not. What had started as an ecological day became a social education.
Our day started with the usual round of minibus pickups. Sadly the first bloke to get in stank (he was travelling alone). He was followed by a droning Ameri can (also single supplement) and the theatrical entrance (ooh, this must be the big boys' row) of a gay Dutch married couple, Erik and Ronald, who took a shine to us and turned out to be a hoot. B was sandwiched between Erik and Stinker. J got Droner.
When the bus was full, Into the boot climbed a local family of 5 - parents, grandmother and 2 children.
It took 2 hours to get there. What was billed as a full day tour with jungle trek turned out to be half a day's worth of activity with long periods of 'wander around on your own for a couple of hours' and no jungle trek 'not possible today'.
Toilet facilities were scarce and Ronald caused Erik to collapse helplessly in giggles when he trod in some human faeces 'oh he really hates it - look at his face!'
Lunch arrived - a bucket of curried veg and some rice. Worryingly, the guide started cleaning bowls and removing used toothpicks from between them , at which point 4 of us declined all but a baguette, to his mystification.
The day finished with a sunset river cruise - rickety boat with smoking engine thundering at 200 decibels, back before sunset.
Back in Kampot we had cocktails then dinner with Erik and Ronald, our new best friends, who had somehow managed to shower and transform their appearance in 10 minutes flat. Felt a bit shabby but it turned out to be a great evening.