Friday day7

---

Early start today as being picked up at 8.30 for an hrs ride out to the elephant sanctuary. An open backed pick up truck arrived on time and we got to share the route out of town with a couple from Ireland, a couple from Australia and a chap from Germany - all lovely people who we could all chat fluently with, so that was really nice. We stopped off first at PooPooPaper Park where they hand make paper from elephant poo - very ingenious! Brought a couple of bits and we headed off to the sanctuary. It was a whole day to learn how to command an elephant, to ride and bathe them and make their daily meds. So we pulled into the sanctuary, got changed into blue overalls and met one of the elephants by generally feeding him bananas and sugar cane. He was a very gentle 13yr old with tusks - so medium height. Next we learnt the commands, stop, start etc. and learnt how to climb up and sit around his neck - he goes down slightly on bended knee and with grabbing the top of an ear and pulling on a bit of rope around his neck kinda get on it like a horse!! not possibly as easy as it sounds - he was still pretty tall! Went for a short walk round the area with our trainer by the side cause even with commands elephants will generally do what they wanna do!! Next was a lovely lunch and to make the medicine with they have daily to help keep them regular! a mixture of sugar, banana, some berries, and a twig! yummy! the elephants couldnt get enough tho, so that was good. After another practice ride, we walked up to the nearest village ( stunning scenery all around) where there was a baby and 3 adults, so we all got to say hello to the baby and feed him bananas - they eat an incredible amount! Next was our turn to ride the adults - had to get on these by climbing up onto a platform with nothing to hold onto but a rope around its neck, i sat at the front with Michelle behind with nothing to hang onto except me! A very nervous 20 minutes later - the path they walked up was a single track unmade road, with a big drop down to a river on one side with the elephants constantly trying to overtake each other - not much room was left! Safely back at the platform we walked down a steep path to the river with the elephants and bathed them - we all got a photo with them squirting water, it was nice to see them playing and cooling off. On the journey back to the hotel we arranged with the others to meet up for dinner and drinks - had a lovely evening and swopped emails.

---