10th February 2011

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After a breakfast of fruit, we took the scooter back and went on our elephant trek. This was fantastic, although in the first five minutes I wanted to get off. Our elephant was called Dua (Star) and aged 30 years. We both sat in the seat on her back that was tied with ropes under her belly, her tail and her chin. When she walked we wobbled from side to side and we were sooooooo high up!! We trekked through a rubber plantation and a pomelo orchard which took about 40 minutes. Then we stopped for 20 mintures at a rock pool, here we helped the mahout (elephant owner) wash Dao, we splashed water onto her and scrubbed her with a hard brush. She blew water over us too. Then I got onto her back and she stood up. The mahout told me to sit on her neck and then I was riding an elephant bareback!!!! On the way back to where we had left her seat she stopped by a tree to scratch herself for a couple of minutes - it was just like something out of the Jungle Book! With her seat back on for me and Mark sitting on her neck we rode back to base. We soon got used to 'driving' our elephant and it is an experience I would have over and over again. The camp is a member Friends of the Asia Elephant Foundation and from what we saw they are well looked after. This was the first time we have rode on an elephant and the first time we have heard an elephant fart. Bless her, she does eat a lot of fibre.

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