Some photos of scenery from up on beautiful and wild Son Tra mountain. It was also known as "Monkey Mountain" by American soldiers during the war and had a communications facility on it as it is very close to Da Nang airfield which was used heavily by the US in the 60s and up to the mid 70s. So very glad that whole horror show is over and this jungle mountain has since become a protected national reserve. It certainly is home to alot of monkeys though, and including one of the very last refuges for the extremely endangered Red-Shanked Douc langur. A most beautifully adorned and very shy monkey that does not come down to the road to watch we humans and hope for handouts of food like the brazen Macaque monkeys do here.
The road that leads here starts just outside the city limits and is steep and winding and while the last big typhoon that hit here a couple of months ago caused alot of landslides, with big rocks and red mud and trees and downed power lines covering the road and making it impassable for awhile, it has now since been cleared and open for traffic. I would not want to travel up here in any heavy rain though, that's for sure, as you can see how scarred it is in some places with no trees left to hold back the land from sliding again, as well as big boulders jutting out that would not take much more movement of the soil to dislodge them and send then rolling onto the road below.
Image: Just on the other side of this boulder were two Macaque monkeys eating grasses. One didn't like it when my son started to climb up on it and it leapt up onto the rock and showed my son who was boss by chasing him off, hahahaa! Quite the adrenaline rush to be faced by a perturbed fanged monkey giving you hell for daring to go on THEIR rock! 😮😬😅
Thankfully (and in more ways than one) this whole mountain has very few human inhabitants, so no one was killed or homes destroyed here during these slides. It is most definitely a wild and undisturbed mountain covered in lush jungle trees and dense foliage, and a stunning place to drive to to see an incredible vista of the East Sea and yet even more wild mountains in a long chain in the distance, some with their very steep and rocky cliffs hugging the shoreline and being pummelled by constant rolling waves that crash into their sides creating a swirling frothy dance below that is mesmerizing to watch, at least to me.
Image: My son Patrick. A few minutes after taking this pic we both got chased away from that rock behind him by that bossy monkey, hahaha!
Some of these coastal mountain ranges also hide calm little golden sand beaches tucked away around bends and in inlets where not so exposed to the roiling sea. It is most certainly a dreamscape of Mother Earth's beauty here, and I'm so glad my son took me to see. It is only about a 15 or so minute drive by scooter from the bustling concrete city of Da Nang, but yet feels a whole other world away. 🙏😍💗
Image: The Macaque monkey making sure we know that this is HIS throne. 😁😅😂
Son Tra Mountain, Vietnam
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