Testing the water!

Another early morning (I don't remember anything in the holiday itinerary about reduction in night time sleeping hours!!!) I'm a night owl, not an early bird - cultivated during all those years studying with the OU!! I digress.

It was a magical experience being out in the cool mist morning air; that was after we had mastered the skill of getting on the elephant. We were out for 3 ½ hours and saw glimpses of a rhino, sloth bear, deer and peacocks, none of which were photographed!! An elephant ride is not exactly smoooooth, lots of sky or lots of grass, not much of the bits in the middle.

In the peace of the morning a mobile phone rang....a catchy Nepalese tune... they use them to communicate with the other elephant "keepers" to report sightings of animals. Quite reassuring to know they could track you if you got lost, as long as you haven't run out of minutes or battery life!! We (the elephants) were walking through long grass and this picture illustrates how high it grows!! We met women (yes .. the women doing the manual labour again) cutting the grass and carrying it back to the village. It is used for many purposes including constructing the walls of their buildings. About 40-50 local people a year are killed by animals whilst out in the park. (Didn't find out the male / female / children split in the numbers)

We had a clever elephant that picked up these peacock feathers for me (under the instruction of his "keeper") I was the only one to return waving a souvenir!!

Getting off the elephant after 3 ½ hours was ungainly to say the least, numb bum and dead legs!! A quick breakfast and then down to the river to see the elephants bathing. They enjoyed the cool off and we admired the skills and sense of balance of the keepers.

The afternoon trip down the river was most certainly out of my comfort zone, but having done it, it was an experience to be logged, possibly not repeated!! There are crocodiles in the river, but we were assured that at this time of year they are "hiding away", we did see some small ones on the river bank and on the move!!

We walked through the jungle (not too dense and on a path) to see the crocodile breeding centre. No picks as I couldn't focus through the wire fencing of the enclosures. They also have an elephant breeding centre which we weren't allowed to visit, but met this handsome guy as he returned from his daily dip.

There was a minor encounter with a snake which I will explain tomorrow!!!