Our class goes to Crocodile Lake

I’m several days behind updating this blog since our whole class went to spend 3 days at Crocodile Lake. There is a ranger station and guest house there, and the scenery and wildlife is really outstanding. 

It felt good to move the conversation from the conference room to the outdoors.

Crocodile Lake is a huge wetland complex (2,500 hectares or 6,177 acres in the rainy season, shrinking to 370 acres in the dry season) here in the park. The wetland is a big reason why the park has such high biodiversity.  Wetlands support different species of plants and animals (especially birds and amphibians) than the upland forests. This area is good habitat for gaur, Sambar deer, primates and more. If the rangers are available, you can ask them to take you out on a boat for a small fee. (It’s worth it).

Because Crocodile Lake is so important for regional biodiversity, it was recognized as a Ramsar Wetland in 2005. The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty to support protection of really important wetlands around the world. There are 2 in Vietnam (although I forget the other one right now).

Crocodile Lake is the site of a very successful wildlife conservation projects: the re-establishment of the Siamese crocodile. This animal was locally extirpated by illegal hunting (possibly completely extinct in the wild) around 1990. Restoration efforts began in 2000 and now there is a healthy population of wild crocodiles at the lake. We saw some big ones and some babies.  We saw swimming around, eating fish, and laying in the mud. They are dangerous. You should not approach them, or even go in the water. In this picture Mr Thanh and I are close enough-  can you see the crocodile?

It’s one of the popular trekking destinations in the park because it’s just 5k each direction with a beautiful destination. You pass by a huge Tung tree on the way which is great for taking pictures. It’s possible to see wild primates and lots of birds on the trail. We were kind of a big group though, and going off trail to map some trees, so we didn’t see too much on the trail (exception: a giant lizard and a really poisonous snake).

At the lake we continued our training after a half day of free time. The students hosted meals for Tan and me and everything was delicious. I've not had a chance to get hungry here.

Our training topics at the lake included tour guide skills & a field practical, discussion of the park’s biodiversity, giving evaluation forms to the many tourists who visit the lake during our 3 day stay and then summarizing their comments. I will try to make each of these a separate post.

If you are a tourist visiting Cat Tien and you want to visit Crocodile Lake, you need to buy a ticket at the Eco-Tourism Center and then take a car or bicycle (the park can arrange these) to the trailhead. That’s about 9k (of course you can walk too, but just make sure you have enough time). Then walk the remaining 5k to the lake. You do not need a guide. It is possible (if you ask in advance) to stay at the guest house at the lake and in that case you would have dinner with the rangers. You should do it. I will work with the park to get this information posted on web site (price, availability, etc). There's also consensus that there should be a sign close to headquarters explaining where to get a ticket and how far away the lake is, because it's fairly common for people to head over there on foot without a ticket and unprepared for the distance.

By the time you see this sign, it may too late for your camping trip. There should be another, similar sign 9k from this sign. At the park headquarters.  We actually ran into a group of 6-8 young people who were planning to walk from the headquarters to the lake, to camp, but with only 2 hours total for the trip. And no ticket.