(L - As usual Tilly and Mae Kham Puan pass by the deck where we are having our breakfast
- just in case there are some bananas goi8ng begging)
(R - Some of our group of 2 weekers having breakfast on the deck)
(L - We have a very good selection for breakfast - but mainly Thai, with some acceptance of western customs - like corn flakes, and toast. But the toast is cooked on a fire in a clay pot. Sometimes it is cooked by the staff, but sometimes you have to cook your own. I time it to ar
rive there when there is generally toast available to pick up!!)
(L - We generally have fresh bananas, but they go quickly - even though the elephants seem to get plenty - but theirs are generally green!)
(L - This is an elephant's tooth - they normally have four, but a few of ours have no teeth and so we prepare softer foods for them to eat)
(R - Jam -James - one of our regular guides
(L - After breakfast we were allocated to the cleaning up job - Poo Cleaning!! We lean n our shovels like all good council workers)
(R - This time we had a truck to load the refuse in! We use shovels, pitch forks and rakes)
(L & R - Cleaning up in the various pens. The elephants are returned to certain stalls for the night, where they are chained up. It is unfortunate that they are chained for longer than they are free, but as the surroundin
g areas are private farming land, there is always the danger that if they escape and cause a nuisance in the farmer's field he is allowed to shoot them)
(R - One of the workers not working!!)
(L & R - Loading our truck
(L - In the clinic, we visit the resident elephant who is in for foot treatment - he stood on a land mine which seriously injured his left hind foot.)
(L & R - Th
is elephant was on the walk back to the rear of the Park, but was thirsty. So he stopped by a certain tap, and then with his truck he turned on the water. The tap was a lever type, so he didn't have to twist it. Then he proceeded to fill up his t
runk and squirt it in his mouth. And he stayed until he was satisfied. At one stage the mahout turned the tap off but the elephant promptly turned it back on again!!)
(L & R - Two of the elephants enjoy their river swim - another regular thing to look at each day)
I was lucky enough to meet Lek, who is the driving force behind the Elephant Nature Park. Lek is Thai and her name means "Small", and to see her with elephants is amazing. She talks to them, chides them and they seem to "listen" to her. And to see her standing beside these large elephants, she almost disappears, as these pictures show.
(L & R - Lek gave me some food to feed the elephants and Pom came and took the camera for these shots
(L & R - We have two baby elephants - but they are around 2 years old now. Here one of them poses with tourists)
(L - Our banana stockpile in the elephant kitchen)
(R - We pass an elephant as we go out into the Park for another elephant walk)
(L & R - Afternoon duties were fence repairing or building - which ever way you want to look at it.
The first part of that was the cutting of the fence posts to length. We had a very small cross cut saw, which some of the girls used - with effort!!)
(L & R - The rest of us set about digging holes for the posts. We were replacing a fence that was there previously, and had rotted or collapsed or b
een leaned upon by an elephant!! We had to remove the old posts, undo the attached bared wire, dig the hole, replace the post and then re-attach the barbed wire! We had a small post hole digger, a hammer and pliers and a small supply of nails. Again a story of lack of correct tools
(L & R - After repairing that section of fence we moved up to the deck to work on another fence that had failed to stand the strength of a rampaging elephant last week. It was quite interesting to watch, but I didn't have a camera at the time - but this particular elephant came rushing out from his stall, with an eye on a branch hanging low down over the deck. She was able to put her forelegs up on the steel rails, and reach the overhanging branch. Then the dogs started barking at her, and she started chasing them. This got more and more boisterous with the dogs barking more and the elephant chasing them in all directions!! In the end she ran round the deck and crashed through a fence there. The mahouts had to come and carefully shepherd her out, and then we had the job of repairing the damage.
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!
atching 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!!!
t a delivery truck arrived with another 3 tons of pumpkin, so we formed a hu
man chain and unloaded the pumpkins onto the racks.
(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)
