Mountain biking to save Cambodia's wildlife

In a remote village nestled in the foothills of Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains former illegal loggers and endangered wildlife poachers are turning to mountain biking to provide a more sustainable income.

Established with the assistance of Wildlife Alliance (formerly Wild Aid), an NGO working to protect the areas endangered wildlife, and in partnership with Asia Adventures, a Cambodian based adventure tour company, the villagers of Chi Pat have set up a community based ecotourism project featuring Cambodia’s first off-road mountain bike tours into one of the region’s most important, and little explored, wilderness areas.

Being based in Chi Pat, accessible by a 2 hour boat ride through mangrove forests, intrepid mountain bikers leave the dusty dirt roads of the village and are soon spinning along old logging routes, a mix of double track and single track undulating trails that the surrounding vegetation is reclaiming, splashing through streams and wading across shallow rivers. The trails pass through a mix of open meadow, bamboo thickets, pristine lowland rainforest, and offer fine views over the surrounding forested hills. Welcoming waterfalls are great resting places where a refreshing dip can be taken. Other sights include the mystical ancient burial jars hidden in cliff side crevices, bat caves, a rich birdlife, and the possibility of glimpsing wildlife such as elephants.

As Mark Ellison, the Managing Director of Asia Adventures explains, “For mountain biking the remote and unexplored Cardamom Mountains are a huge untapped resource, and if people coming here to mountain bike helps protect this beautiful environment by offering poor loggers and poachers alternative employment such as guides, cooks, mechanics etc. that is excellent, a win, win, win for all!”

For further information, log on to Asia-adventures.com.