Elephants a go go and Wedding Fever!

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After the excitement of the Perihera late last night we manage to summon enough energy to get to the Botanical Gardens bright and early before it gets too hot. The gardens are lush green and filled with surprising sights like couples courting under umbrellas, giant fruit-bat filled trees and weird spindly ancient trees.

Next stop is Pinnewala - the famous elephant orphanage which I didn't get a chance to visit on my last visit to Sri Lanka, so I'm more than a little excited! The elephants don't disappoint - they are as adorable as to be expected and we marvel as they use sticks to clean between their toenails and behind their ears. I would quite like to poke their keeper in the eye with his spear though, as he keeps hurting the baby elephant when he mischieviously trys to eat a banana that some tourists keep offering to him.

All of a sudden I'm gripped with the desire to join a wildlife project where I can look after injured elephants for the rest of my life, or at least a few months. The elephants in Sri Lanka seem healthy if a little forelorn when after their outing to the river they have to march back into their pens. I would love to see a mass group like this roaming free in the wild, it's sad to think they spend most of their day in an enclosure. But still it's amazing to see these adorable creatures playing so close-by.

Fast forward to later that evening and it's back to Colombo and Wedding planning a go-go! Don't ask about the running order.

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