Day 11 - Elephant Kitchen and Tree Planting

All of our days start with breakfast - and before that of course we see the elephants!! Our breakfast is a buffet style which we eat on the deck whilst the elephants are being released from their pens, and heading off for their daily locations. Naturally some of the elephants passing by drop in hoping that they will get a banana or something else!

Lately we have been watching on of the baby elephants who can't wait to get out, so when the top rail is removed he actually climbs over the remaining three bars, and the top one is about5 the same height as he is!! He will be hard to keep in when he gets older. Today we saw that he now has worked out how to remove the top bar himself with his trunk!!!

(L - Making banana balls)

After breakfast we had our morning duties, and my group reported to the elephant kitchen again - with one group put onto banana balls, and us going to wash pumpkins. In the middle of that a delivery truck arrived with another 3 tons of pumpkin, so we formed a human chain and unloaded the pumpkins onto the racks.

(L & R - Washing pumpkins in the trough - a wet but satisfying job in the hot weather )



(R - After the pumpkins we had to load and wash the watermelons - here they are transferred to the carry baskets)



(L - Renee uses the machete on the pumpkins - making to bite size - although some of the elephants will take the whole pumpkin in one bite!!)

(R - Even at lunch time we seem to be ablwe to find time to go see the elephants - here Tilly and Mae Kham Puan enjoy the river)





(L & R - The pumpkin truck arrives, and we unload)




(L - We are well away from the local shops but the ice cream man drives up at 2pm each day!!

(R - After lunch we were on tree planting duties outside the front gate)







(R - Our tree planting group - AFTER the completion of the day's shift)




(L - Victoria hams it up with two of our guides - Chet and Jam)


(R - Outside the front gate and the welcome sign)