Dropping down to pass beneath the wall of a large reservoir, we reached the hills of Dalat, once again winding upwards around pine-topped hills to suddenly emerge in the city itself. Sitting at 1475m with undulating streets and surrounded by hills, it was a welcome change from the flat urbanisations of the delta. The temperature too was several degrees cooler .

Dalat is very different from what we had seen so far of Vietnam and it was clear why the French colonials chose this as their retreat from the hot humid summers of Saigon. We were looking forward to stretching our legs and explore the landscape more closely.

Day 1 - in the pine forests (11.5 km - 480m ascent - 620m descent)

We were picked up at our hotel by our guide, Khôi and his offsider, Anh, and, after picking up a French couple, headed off to the outskirts of Dalat to begin our walk. It was a perfect day; cool sunshine and clear blue skies. We started out on a quiet road that looked back over the city to the 2169m peaks of Lang Bian Mountain. Soon, Khôi turned onto a small dirt track and led us up into the pine-clad hills that surround Dalat.

The track became a footpath leading us deeper into the pines, planted by the French in the 1920s, but looking strangely as though they were a natural part of the landscape. Through the trees we could glimpse the hazy hills and distant mountains and, with birds singing above, for the first time in Vietnam our surrounds felt peaceful.

Descending down a steep orange-clay path, we emerged at a sealed road leading up to Thien Vien Trúc Lâm, a recently built buddhist monastery and meditation centre. We followed it up to visit the buildings, striking orange and yellow pagodas set in immaculate gardens amongst the pine trees; an incredibly serene setting with the soft gong of the prayer bell ringing periodically.

From the terrace you could look out across Tuyen Lam Lake to our destination, the steep slopes of Pinhatt Mountain. We descended to reach the lake shore, crossing the dam wall that holds it back, wandered around its shoreline, past small coffee plantations and an experimental salmon farm.

Tuyen Lam Lake and Elephant Mountain

Eventually Khôi led us onto a dirt road leading away from the lake and gradually climbing back into the pine forest, with anomalous patches of bananas and pineapples growing within it. With this and orchids colonising their trunks, the pines were starting to look a little bit more alien.

Reaching a bend in the road, we saw in front of us a narrow footpath heading straight up a 30-45° slope; our first challenge - the 250m direct ascent of Pinhatt Mountain was about to start. As we climbed steadily and sweatily upwards, the views behind us opened out to reveal the expanse of the lake, distant Dalat and even more distant Lang Bian Mountain.

We were thankful for the shade of the pines as we crested Pinhatt in time for a well-earned lunch in the shade of one particularly large tree. When Khôi and Anh unpacked the lunch our mouths began to water; fresh bread rolls, cheese, pork, salad, bananas, pineapple, mangos, dragon fruit and longans. It was no wonder that we needed a siesta listening to the birds twitter and the wind sigh through the pine needles above in the languid warmth of a Dalat autumn day.

Eventually we had to make a move and found ourselves descending the mountain as steeply as we had come up. After a while, the slope flattened somewhat and headed back toward the lake before dropping down one last steep hillside to its shore. Here we were greeted by three elephants, two made of stone and one real; we had arrived at a popular lakeside cafe / picnic area where elephant rides were on offer - we didn't take it up.

The area was also one where, 40 years ago (is it that long already), Viet Cong guerillas found refuge in the caves and forests, while the South Vietnamese army held the fort in the city nearby. Dalat and surrounds, however, were spared any fighting during the war by tacit agreement between both sides who apparently appreciated its therapeutic values for rest and recreation.

Another sunny morning greeted us as we set out, heading through denser grass beneath the pines to round a swampy flat on the lake shore. Two enormous piles of dried dung gave a clue to who was creating the paths through the grass and not long after, we met the perpetrator. An Asian elephant was ambling slowly down the track with its K'ho-driver on top, off to the campsite for another days work giving tourists their "I've ridden an elephant" thrill.

We waved and headed on, picking our way through the thick grass to reach the verge of the rain forest and a sluggish stream blocking our way. Khôi picked his way along the edge until he found a crossing point on a small wooden log. We were at the start of a long and steady climb up the appropriately named Elephant Mountain. The track led us through a succession of jungle thickets and clearings of dense tall grass (porcupine habitat) before we finally entered the rain forest proper.

Elephant mountain is that way!

As the track climbed steadily, winding past giant buttress-rooted or aerial-rooted trees we walked in a shady world of vines, shrubs, ferns and fungi. The rain forest world is defined by the great variety of leave shape and shade, the texture of moss- and epiphyte-covered trunks, the rich moist scent of the soil and decaying vegetation and the play of light in the canopies, a dark, green world enlivened by the occasional flash of colour or the delicate form of a mushroom.

As we climbed slowly upwards, Khôi was always on the look out for specimens to talk about the different plants and their usage, the trees and their timber and the relationship of hill tribes and the forest - fascinating as always. It was a silent place though; broken by the occasional piping of a bird in the canopy, the distant hooting of a gibbon, scurrying in the branches above as we disturbed a group of squirrels, a soft shuffle in the litter where a vole sought shelter, or the loud chattering of a group of Australian schoolkids whose path we crossed on their way out from an overnight camp in the jungle (they didn't do things like that when I was at school!)

Large buttress-rooted tree

Shortly after we reached a ridge below the summit of Elephant Mountain and began our descent, steeply at first, but becoming gradually gentler to finally emerge from the rainforest as we crossed a small stream.

This area was still densely vegetated, but had been partly cleared by K'ho Chil tribespeople for their vegetable/fruit gardens. At present it was overgrown with shrubs and was superb butterfly habitat. Species of many sizes and hues flitted by; small yellow, medium brown-orange, black and white, greyish-blue and the superb but elusive giant black and blue ulysses.

We now followed the K'ho pathway down and soon were following one of their irrigation channels past the small houses and hillside gardens. Beyond lay a panoramic view of the valley ahead with its villages and small farm plots. A steep descent through the red earth fields to cross another stream by wooden log brought us to a pleasant lunch spot in the shade, looking over the rich tapestry of hills, forest and garden plots. After lunch, we wandered on past different crops - coffee, corn, rice, sweet potatoes, gladiolus for the flower market - along laneways lined with lantana.