Elephants! (tour guides part 3)

I have a minor obsession with elephants, and up until now have never been on one for more than 5 minutes, so I was super excited that we were planning on taking our guests to an elephant camp! We figured with two more adults helping out, we could manage our three children for the event.

We found a great deal for a new elephant camp outside of town and decided to give it a try. They took us out in their van, and after an introductory speech about elephants and a welcome drink, we went over to meet and feed the elephants. We then loaded up and trundled off for our 30 minute ride. We took three elephants – one kid on each. Our particular guide, was very happy to take some pictures of us.  He ended up hopping down off the elephant and taking dozens of pictures, to my surprise later when I looked back through them.  Good thing it’s a digital camera!To his credit, he got some great shots, like this one. And some “creatively framed” ones, as well (above).  At one point we got a little nervous, because he wandered so far away taking pictures of scenery and everyone else, that we ended up alone on our elephant, and our elephant got to doing her own thing.The ride was fun, although rather short. But, that actually turned out to be a good thing, because it was blazing hot out that day! After the ride, we spent a little more time with the elephants at the feeding post, and one of the elephants was pretty interested in Isla and ended up slobbering snot all over her baby carrier!   By far the best part of the day was bathing the elephants. I guess they got pretty dirty on our little walk.I think the elephants enjoyed cooling off as much as we did.  Riding mine in the water, was like riding a bucking bronco! Of course, I have no experience on a bucking bronco, so I may be being a little dramatic.  The mahouts (“elephant wrangler” to the layperson) said that only one person could go at a time, so the girls waited on shore. I again got ditched by my mahout and ended up riding solo.  A little adrenaline makes the experience that much more exciting! We explained to the mahouts that our girls don’t know how to swim yet, but they still wanted to have a turn bathing, and they reassured us that they’d take good care of them. Getting sprayed! And again. Ryan’s brother and Elise were the last to go in.

Nothing better than a clean elephant! Elise got her turn washing her elephant.She also got a good soaking. The girls absolutely LOVED it, and wanted to get back in right away. We got to say one last goodbye to the elephants before heading out.  Elise left in tears, because she hadn’t had enough time with the elephants.  I’m sure we’ll be back sometime in the future, because Mommy’s as fond of these massive creatures as the kids are!

What’s your favorite animal?