We got off the bus in a desolate street and started walking the short distance to a road with a few recommended guest houses. The first that looked chilled was full, unfortunately the next did not appeal to us! so we settled on the next for one night, hot water too! Needed after the island!

20th December

First thing we headed to the chilled out 'blissful' for breakfast and ah muesli yum! Also managed to get a room for the rest of our stay for a whole $5 a night. After moving all our stuff to our new GH we searched out some bikes for the day. We set off to a pool if water with rapids 8-9 km away we cycled through some amazing scenery unfortunately the location was not as hoped, the damn mentioned in the book was completed stopping the rapids and the pool now stagnant with lots of little friends swimming and flying about. We headed off instead to the river, down a very long bumpy track was a GH in some lovely grounds by the water. We had a drink to recover then hired the last 2 kyaks, we decided to do in stints as 3 of us. I set off he'll for leather to get to the fork, stopping shy of it I headed back to Paula, we started paddling back to Jon, Paula was a little tired so I pushed on to swap. I went a fair way but seeing a bridge was a little confused, did not recall going under one! Turning back was notably harder, a bit tired after almost an hour and now against current, reaching Paula she agreed we had not passed a bridge so we trudged back. It was very hard and after sone way we saw Jon approaching, he pointed us back to the dock and as soon as we were close I jumped in to cool off! We were worn out and decided to rest on the jetty while Jon had some kyak time! We then set off on our trek back down the dirt track.

The sore bum back and hand day! 21st December

Off again on our trusty steeds again heading to a cave 'Phnom Chnork' riding along paddy fields for miles oce off the main road, we were cycling approx 1 km from the cave when Jon was approached by a local lad offering his tour skills, so he jumped on the back of his bike and came with us.As we got closer more local children wanted to be our guides too, we said no but to no avail about 5 followed, one stating our bikes would need to be looked after, hmm what does that mean! We said 1 to look after bikes and the lad we had already agreed too, but they all followed us! 203 steps to an amazing view, then into a cavern to be greeted by a stalactite elephant, there were various other animals made out in the cave even what the kids say is King Kong's foot print!!Within the cave is a 7th Century brick temple dedicated to Shiva. We were then led climbing through this cave, in flip flops!! Not such a good idea, was a little hairy at times, but we made it though ride to the exit slope of the cave where I proceeded to hit the deck in spectacular style through lack of grip the flip flops just skidded away. Ouch seriously my backside and back hurt but caught a lot of the impact in my upper arms. After recovering from the shock of my fall, we shared out money to the kids, some not so happy to share but we thought it best they all get some. We then set off to the Secret Lake for a chill out, not realising it was some distance, a further 40 mins on dirt tracks which were hard going.I had some runaway rubbish and stopped to deal with it , not realising I stopped in a pot hole put my foot down but it kept going and yep the bike with it, my second bump of the day, me underneath a bike in a whole!! The great bit was it upset a guard dog who thought it a good time to start barking at me ha! Charming like I was a threat! After recovering we were off again eventually making it to the lake, which was vast for a secret lake! There was a small stall where we were all happy to accept a basic meal of noodles/cauliflower and eggs it was lovely we were all soo hungry, we sat by the waterside and ate whilst recovering a bit, Then we set off on our trek back down the dirt tracks, we cycled about 20 miles in total on some really hard roads, getting back we sorted a tour for the next day and headed to our room to clean up before heading to a little restaurant by the water for dinner.

22nd December

After yesterdays hard work the option to take a tuk tuk rather than cycle to the base of the hill won hands down!! The road was not so bad but the track we had to go up was interesting, we had to get out a few times as there were large puddles which the tuk tuk would get stuck in!We arrived at a farm where we parked and set off on foot, it was to be a 2 hour walk to the waterfall and some hard going too, the sun was very hot even setting off about 9am we knew it was going to be a hot trek but wow!! There was some shade on route which we were thankful for but not a lot of breeze low down, the inclines got steeper as we headed up. We were made aware you don't go off tracks here as there are unexploded devices from the wars still lurking!! The views were amazing we even saw an eagle sweeping above us as we climbed up. We came across another group on route & were tag teaming as each had a rest the others overtook, which was quite funny, reaching one point we all ended up together and rested for a while. We were drenched even our guides were too! The guides spoke to the farmers on the hills as we headed up and they allowed us to pick any Papaya that was ripe, they would go to waste otherwise, we found plenty and all had one at least to carry with us. As we closed in on the waterfall we had to start climbing through bush and over rocks until finally we came across an amazing fall.We were told that it was lacking water in advance so not to expect much, I cant imagine how it is then because it was gorgeous as it was! Most amazing natural things I do love a good waterfall and this was one and really worth the trek, we all got into the pool, it was so cold and lovely after how hot we all were. Sitting under the fall was so powerful you couldn't keep your eyes open.We dried off and ate some bread/jam and cheese our guide had carried finished by fresh pick from the trees papaya.After a rest from food a few of us had to go in and experience the pool again, them it was time to head down hill.Downhill was much easier for sure!! And we were pleased to have the tuk tuk to take us back, it had been hard work.Our reward for our efforts was an ice cream followed by beer and movie in the lounge, just what we needed!!

Kampot had a lot of amazing sites to offer and the locals were all so happy, the kids just loved to say hello.