Phnom Penh – Cardamom Mountains                                                                       [D]

Your journey of Cardamom Mountain exploration commences with meeting your driver at the lobby of your Phnom Penh hotel or from Phnom Penh International Airport for a 4-hour drive towards Trapeang Rung, located beneath the Cardamom and Elephant Mountains. The area has spearheaded an important Community-Based Ecotourism Project (CBET) with the support from the Wildlife Alliance in order to provide sustainable alternative livelihoods to local people while reducing threats to local natural resources by capitalizing on the natural beauty of the region through ecotourism. En route, we will stop to stretch your legs or for refreshments (own account). We arrive at the beginning of the afternoon at the lodge’s lounge to freshen up before embarking on a one-hour boat ride from the Preak Tachan River to our overnight address at the Cardamom Mountains (the boat leaves 14:00 hrs sharp from the pier).

Lunch is not included on this day.

A warm welcome from the tented camp staff awaits as soon as you make your way to your booked safari tent and make yourself comfortable as the team explains the ins and outs of what you have at your disposal. Cardamom Tented Camp is an eco-lodge providing an educational nature experience whilst supporting local conservation. Situated in the Boutum Sakor National Park, the country’s largest national park, the Camp works alongside the local community to protect the area and keep threats like loggers, poachers and sand dredging at bay. Visitors stay in basic but comfortable tents and participate in activities including kayaking, hiking, learning jungle survival skills, monitoring wildlife and catching flora to help with conservation efforts.

The rest of the day is completely up to you to fill in, but we highly recommend spending time around the tented camp to see the abundance of nature that you will call home for the coming 2 nights, alongside gaining a first glimpse into the work done by the people behind the Wildlife Alliance. The hike around the camp is an easy one.

Dinner and overnight Cardamom Tented Camp.

Cardamom Mountains                                                                                                      [B, L, D]

It may be the first sunrays or the sounds of silence that wake you up but the result will be the same: sincere bliss after a first night’s sleep in your own safari tent in the Cambodian jungle. Breakfast is served quite early as you have a full day of joining the Wildlife Alliance rangers on their quest to protect the natural habitat of many animal species.

Right after breakfast, you are getting introduced to the daily and demanding job that these rangers have to endure during a normal day in the forests. You will accompany them, alongside an English-speaking guide, on their regular patrols in the area, following abandoned poaching routes and logging trails of once was a thriving area for poachers. With strict regulations on keeping the region around the Cardamom and Elephant Mountains, more wildlife now roams these forests and you need to keep your eyes peeled on what may be wandering through the often thick forests. This hike will be an amazing introduction of what these rangers do as you make your way to a ranger station.

Lunch is included during this day

Rangers at the Cardamon Tented Camp take a proactive approach against poaching. Their ranger station is one of the leading stations in the country where confiscated snares, traps and makeshift rifles are displayed demonstrating the Cardamom Tented Camp’s work to keep poachers at bay. Each on these means of capturing animals come with its own story on these were once used. This eco-lodge, and its ranger station, provides visitors with an educational nature experience and can follow poaching trails to understand the threats the Boutum Sakor National Park faces.

We slowly make our way back to the camp – you can go back following the same hiking trail or use one of the camp’s kayaks to paddle comfortably back before freshening up under the beige canvas before dinner is served.

Dinner and overnight Cardamom Tented Camp.

Cardamom Mountains – Phnom Penh                                                                       [B]

Breakfast is included at the camp. If you are an early riser, you can go on a self-guided hike on the trails around the camp – the team at the Cardamom tented camp are more than willing to tell you the best route to take and what you may see this early in the morning.

At around 10:00, it is time to say goodbye to you’re the team as you board the boat back to Trapeang Rung where you can continue your onward journey to Thailand (Trat or Koh Chang Ferry pier), to the beaches of Sihanoukville or heading back to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.