Have you ever been to a place that you aren't sure anybody has ever been to before? It's a really difficult thing to do these days. Every island has been explored, every mountain climbed. Tarutao Island is one of those places where anything is possible. It is situated in Satun province in Southern Thailand and is a tourist island that nobody (hardly) goes to. There is a park warden and a ferry, but the allure of better snorkelling on islands further East, Ko Lipe, Adang, and Rawi is too tempting for most tourists.
I took a trip to Tarutao a few years back. There were 20 of us on two yachts and we had captains that new the waters and the islands like the backs of their hairy paws. The previous year we had also brought kids to the park and indeed to crocodile cave, the gateway to our lost world and the location where Pirates Of Tarutao used to stash their treasure. This year it was determined to explore right through the cave by sea kayak and then enter the mangrove river on the other side.
We lugged our sea kayaks up a small cliff and brought them down into the cave. We started up the generator and the entrance and first hundred yards of the cave were lit up. At this point most people trek along a floating walkway deep into the cave and eventually the lights disappear and you are left in blackness. Instead we had a high tide so we could sea kayak through with head torches. At the furthermost point of the cave, worryingly named "crocodile cave" we came to a low ceiling. The tide was high so if we could make it beneath we would be able to make it out later as the tide fell. We lay back on our kayaks and squeezed underneath.
Now we were in a mangrove river which I knew must have only been visited by a handful of people. Firstly you need to have sea kayaks. Then you need to have the inclination to row them through a black cave and finally you need to want to explore further. Somebody was bound to have been here, but only by sea kayak. The cliffs are limestone and very difficult to walk on as precipitation sharpens the rock into points. The cave is too low for conventional boats to pass below and the river would have been packed full of crocodiles until the seventies when it became fashionable to wear them.
It still wasn't too adventurous though so we paddled on. After all, hundreds of people visited the cave 50 yards behind us every year. After around 2 kilometres we came to a cliff barring our path. The tide was still alright and we noticed a fissure in the cliff and the river ran through it. We tilted our bodies to the side and squeezed through. We had entered a new cave. This one was only a few meters long and another squeeze and we were spat out the other side.
Again we paddled and another 15 minutes brought us to another cliff. A twist and a duck and we were through. This happened two more times and now I was thinking crocodiles, as I started to enquire how a skin hungry hunter would have made it here in the seventies. If there was anywhere in Thailand where crocodiles still existed this was it. We luckily ran into a hornets nest. The bites were annoying, but not dangerous, and while I had no visible threat to my safety other than my imagination I wasn't looking for too many excuses to head back.
Ferry services leave from the Thai mainland and from oh Lipe, but its seasonal. The best times to go are in November to May. Yachts can also be chartered to take you there and usually come equipped with a dinghy for exploring and a sea kayak, or two.
Reference by : Hamish_Thoburn
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