Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

I had such an awesome day today! We were picked up around 8am and drove for over an hour to the Sanctuary. It was not a comfortable journey on a bench in the back of a pickup truck but thankfully the journeys there and back were the worst part. We arrived at 10:10 and walked a shirt distance to the base camp which was basically a wooden structure on the hillside, overlooking rice fields. We changed into karen shirts which are traditionally warn by the tribe of the village the Sanctuary is associated with. Our guide for the day, Tim, told us about the elephants, their names and ages. The oldest was 45, the youngest 15. There was six elephants in total, all female, and one was pregnant. We then went on a short walk to see the elephants.

When we arrived at the elephants, which were just wandering round in a clearing in the jungle we fed them bananas and stroked them. We took many photos. They were so docile. They loved the bananas and slobbered all over our hands as we gave them the bananas.

Next we (sort of) walked with  the elephants down to the river where they splashed about. Some of them sprayed themselves with mud from a nearby puddle. Apparently it helps keep them cool. They weren't forced in the river at any point but all just wandered in at various stages and plonked themselves down to splash around. We were sitting around the river just watching. I could have sat there a long time just watching they were so amazing. After a while we walked along a very thin path with a river on one side and a drop on the other back to the base camp.  We walked along side some beautiful terraced fields.

Back at base around 12pm we had lunch which was chicken wings, rice, some kind of vegetables stir fried in a sauce, and curried potatoes. We sat around relaxing for quite a while. Once lunch was done with we were shown how to make elephant 'medicine'. It was basically tamarin fruit, which is apparently good for the elephants intestines, mixed with banana and sugar cane to cover the taste.  The banana was squished (by hand) and then mixed with the other ingredients and shaped into balls. It was then fed to the elephants which had made their way down past the base camp to what Tim was calling 'the swimming pool'. I have included a photo of the pool for you to see.

The elephants came in 3 by 3 (as opposed to two by two) into the pool.  We has changed into our swimwear by this point and we got into the pool and chucked buckets of water over the elephants and gave them a good brush. After the pool the elephants want into the mud bath next door. Why they did it this was round I have no idea as it doesn't seem to make much sense.  We got very muddy as we threw mud over the elephants and they sprayed themselves with the muddy water. I made the mistake of getting too near one that was spraying itself and got covered in mud. It was all over my face and in my hair. After a while the first three left and we repeated the procedure with the other three. Then the elephants headed off back up the hill. They were guided the whole time by some dudes who seemed to be in control of the elephants.

After the elephants were gone we washed ourselves in the pool, or attempted to at least. The mud didn't really come off that easily. We got changed and then went from a walk around the village at half 2. Tim showed us many different fruits that were growing round the place including lychee, Jack fruit, mangoes, avacados and passionfruits. He also showed us his house and the many animals hanging round it. It was about 50 minutes the walk and it was very hot and sweaty. We ended at the place we were dropped off at. Tim thanked us all, gave us a free bag and said goodbye. Then we drove back to the hostel at 15:15.

We arrived back at the hostel some time around half 5 and immediately jumped straight in the showers to scrub off the rest of the mud. Then we went out for food before coming back to the hostel to chill. 

The swimming pool set among the rice fields