Dumbo&TheDung

After the 5 of us were bundled into the mini van, we started the drive out into the jungle. Along the way our guide told us a bit about elephants. He told us that Asian elephants are much smarter than African elephants! Racist!! Obviously he has never read the elephant whisperer!

Once we arrived, they shoved bags of bananas into our hands and piled huge branches on our shoulders to feed the ellies. I was feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement as I crossed the muddy path into the elephants feeding grounds. The moment I stepped foot onto solid ground, the youngest one barged into me, pulling the branches from my shoulder. Then he realised that I had bananas and shoved his trunk into the bag. Before I could blink, another bigger elephant came at me, his huge beady eyes set on the banana bag.

I couldn’t pull bananas out fast enough and they didn’t even chew! If I paused even for a second his face was in the bag. I accidentally touched his slimy tongue in my panic haste to feed him bananas more quickly. After throwing at least twenty bananas into his face, I had to show him that I had no more. He stuck is trunk in to double check and once satisfied that I wasn’t lying to him, he moved off.

“Well..that was stressful!”

We watched them feed on the branches for a while. Occasionally, they fought off some cows who were brave enough to hover closely and sneak a bite from time to time. Once they were done, we headed into the jungle walking beside them. At times I’d find myself wedged between two ginormous ones and stand still like a tree in hopes they wouldn’t crush my feet!

When they reached the jungle, mission destroy forest began! They rubbed their huge butts on the tree bark often knocking down the smaller trees. I watched as the baby one pushed on an already fallen tree; trying to prove herself but not making much impact. They chilled there for a while before we headed back for lunch.

They let us take the left over fruit to feed the elephants again. I held the silver tray and walked gingerly towards them. A huge one came over as soon as he saw me and stuck his huge trunk on the tray and began to hoover up all the fruit. The others rescued a few pieces but he remained. He gobbled huge chunks of pineapple including the skins, melon, papaya, the lot! Once it was finished he felt around for more.
“No more buddy!” I told him.
His trunk felt around the tray before finding the juice and slurping it up like a straw.
“Okay, now there’s no more!”

It was time to bath them. No 1 on the bucket list! We were ready. Bikinis on and shivering in the cold mountain winds. They began to lead them to the mud path. Just as we were about to follow them in, the one closest

to us decided now was the perfect time to relieve himself.
We watched horrified, as gallons of pee splashed noisily in the water we were about to enter.
“Ewww! You literally had 20 minutes to do that before!”

I waded through the elephant toilet trying not to worry about the giant balls of dung floating next to me. I gathered huge clumps of mud and began to wash one of them. Splat! I twisted my head to see a huge splat of clay on my back with a grinning guide behind me! Here began a colossal mud fight! The aim switched from bathing elephants to covering the guides and trainers in toilet mud.

Once they were thoroughly shampooed with the grey clay, they led them to the river to rinse it off. We were given little bowls to splash them with and again this ended in a water fight. I was stained with multicoloured mud, drenched in wee playing in an elephant toilet but it was the greatest highlight of my trip so far!