A belated posting on the flickr site and gallery of the shots from Bangkok Patana’s Northern Thailand residential.

The Bangkok Patana teaching staff led by Lucy Livingstone conducted a great residential program which we provided the logisitics and all activities for

Operating under our Wild Planet name we are based in the Mae Teng valley for this program and raft the Mae Teng River.

This river is great providing fun grade three rafting with the reassurance of bank side access for the whole section. Also the Meng Ngat resevoir and surrounging valleys provide a great biking, paddling and trekking location.

The normal Wild Planet crew ran the program in conjunction with our long time partners in the North, Alex and Lynne Brodard

This is one of our orginal locations and programs first run in 98’ but is still one of our favourites.

Water levels were great, weather was great and as you can see from the pictures a great time was had by students and staff alike.

Mention to be made of Danny our trip photographer and his great shots.

 

Robin

 

We took a few hours out on xmas eve and xmas day to ride the Khao Ito downhill trail with the new mountan bikes that we will be using for rental.

The trail itself (after a shuttle to the top of Khao Ito ( it was xmas !!)) is 90% downhill and consists of a main section complete with jumps ( and thankfully ride arounds) into a short technical loop track, followed by sngle track with a short tech section and a final 2km run on the road back into the lodge.

 

The bikes are Gary Fisher Wahoo 09 Hardtails specced with basic Deore/Acera kit and v brakes and suntour front shocks. We have them in 13.5, 15 and 17" which covers all sizes except XXXL

The bikes were purchased from the Prachinburi bike store in keeping with our policy of local purchase and they will be maintained on site in our own workshop with parts being sourced from the Prancinburi store.

In addtion to the downhill route we rode over xmas there are a number of other potential trails and loops within Khao Ito ranging from easy to full on.

Project for early 2009 is to install a minimal impact North Shore style loop around the imediate perimieter of the Wild Lodge making use of the big bomb holes and single track around the access road to the park. We plan to construct this using sustainable ecalyptus and the reclaimed hardwood off cuts from the construction projects at The Wild Lodge.