Krabi Mangrove Kayak Trip

Overview

A paddling trip through the mangrove channels behind the Krabi coast, in sheltered water between limestone outcrops, at a pace that suits people who have never used a kayak.

The trees are doing something difficult

Mangroves live in salt water and waterlogged mud, which is a combination almost no other tree survives. Everything odd about them is a solution to that.

The mud has no oxygen in it, so the roots cannot breathe through the ground. Instead the trees push vertical roots up into the air like a bed of blunt spikes, and take in gas through them at low water. That is what you are paddling over when the tide is down and the banks look like they have been carpeted with pencils.

Salt is the second problem, and different species answer it differently. Some block it at the root and simply refuse to take it in. Others let it through and then dump it, pushing crystals out through the leaf surface, so a leaf rubbed with a finger can taste of the sea.

The channels are a nursery

The reason a mangrove creek is full of small fish is that this is where they start. The root tangle is a place where things too small to survive in open water can hide from things that would eat them, and a startling proportion of the fish caught out on the reef spent their first months in here.

The other resident worth watching is the mudskipper, a fish that spends most of its time out of the water. It breathes through its skin and the lining of its mouth as long as both stay wet, props itself up on its front fins, and will jump if you drift too close.

The tide runs the trip

These channels are shallow, and at low water some of them are mud. Departure times therefore follow the tide rather than the clock, and a trip that leaves at seven one week will leave at eleven the next.

That is not disorganisation; it is the only way the route works. High water floats you level with the branches and lets you into the narrower creeks. Low water is when the roots, the crabs and the mudskippers are exposed and visible. Neither is better, but they are different trips, and which one you get depends on the moon rather than on the operator.

Practical shape

The water is flat and the paddling is easy, which is why this suits beginners.

There is no shade in a kayak. Long sleeves work better than repeated applications of sun cream, and a hat that will not blow off is worth more than a good one that will.

Insects are part of the environment, particularly at dusk and in still air among the roots. Repellent belongs in the dry bag rather than in the hotel.