3 Stones on a Mountain

There's a long road to cover between Khon Kaen and Mukdahan. We do a bit of Google search and read about a dinosaur's park at Kalasin. OK, let's go there. It's on a back road, off the main route. Soon some huge concrete dinosaurs loom into view. Impressive, man made structures. We carry on and come to dinosaur museum. RULE 1: NO SPENDING. Our miniscule budget only includes spending on bike, fuel, food and rooms. NO SHOPPING, NO TRIPS, NO MUSEUMS, unless they are free. We look at the concrete imprints of dinosaur footprints in the car park, and ride on. Mmmmm, disappointing. And then we see a blue sign in Thai, with an arrow right. Blue signs generally mean tourist attraction. It's a rock plateau, not granite, not volcanic, but flat and ideal for off-road. We reach the end and there in front silhouetted in the setting sun is a monumentous natural twin sandstone pillar, upon which precariously balanced are two gigantic granite rocks. We stop in awe. "This is the place for dinosaur footprints, " I announce as I dismount and march off. It is magical. Many people before us have laid many cairns. Many people before us have placed delicate vertical sticks under the rocks, as if propping them up. We spend over an hour exploring. We listen in the quiet to ancient voices. I place 3 pretty stones on a cairn. Thailand is full of National Parks. They are not expensive, 4 GBP, and if there is one in the area, we can stretch our budget. 20kms outside Khong Chiam, there is a National Park. Another bit of research tells us about the Rock Art there. It's already 3.30pm, we have 3 hours before sunset. RULE 2: NO RIDING AFTER DARK. As the headlamps are still pathetic we really need to stick to this rule. Can we make it, yes we can. We leave our helmets at reception so that the parkrangers can look for us if we don't return. Again, we pass a collection of pillars with rock roofs balancing on top. We climb the path to the top, guided by cairns, and reach another plateau. This one has been struck by huge forces and is cracked by 50cm wide crevasses. We hop, skip and jump our way to the edge, which is conveniently marked viewpoint. Lying below is the Mekhong river, this side Thailand, t'other Laos. The Mekhong starts in the Tibetan plateau, and flows down this fault line, cliffs here, plains there. Back on the bike around sweeping curves, great road. The bike's having fun, it's got a new tyre and inner tube which we had fetched from Phibun, 80kms round trip in the morning, now fitted and being tested. There's another plateau. It's a massive flat rock at least 4 acres. A section about 6 rugby pitches big doubles up as a car park. Everything was monster size. 3 brilliantly decorated two storey buses, with at least 10 monster speakers framing the front windscreen and spotlights to match. That must be some loud hooter, or sound system for rallies, parties or calling lost passengers. The circular walk to see the rock art was 4kms. Could we do it and still drive the 20kms home before sunset? We have 1.5 hours. Let's give it a go, so we did, accompanied by Nordic pole. We step down, down, down to the base of the cliff. Looking up is like falling backwards. Everything appears upside down. From base to top the cliff reaches 260metres, with inverted shelves about halfway up. Hanging from these are crystallised drops which have curled back to form elephant trunk shapes. Attached to these are huge waving bee swarms. My Sony bridge camera with its amazing 30x zoom did the trick and we watched with wonder using it like binoculars. At the 2 kms mark we reach the rock paintings. We have seen Bushmen paintings in Cedarberg and Gifberg, and Rock Art in the South of France. These cliff paintings, about 20 to 50 metres up, depicted baskets, fish, nets, harvesting. Daily life from ancient times. It was magical. 2kms to go, time marched on, so we must too. Along the cliffbase, up, up, up and then the plateau. Walking West we watched the sun getting lower and lower. Hurry up, Nordic pole is having fun. Leap on bike, fetch helmets at entrance gate, head home to KhongChiam. We made it. Halogen bulbs go on the top of the bike shopping list. That night I dream about the 3 pretty stones in the dark, up on the mountain. One for yesterday, one for today and one for tomorrow.