Last day of my twenties, I bathed Hillary, the good elephant.


The Forest Department manages the elephants they rescue from the wild and this was a small river where they have their daily baths in the evening. I had not been too keen when I first heard it, esp since the temperatures were dipping in the evenings and being in the water did not sound like an option.


waiting for the elephants ...


and here they come...

We reached the place and it was a cute looking shallow river. We waited some moments by bank and the elephants appeared from inside the forest on the other side, riding their mahouts on the backs. It was quite a sight already. The elephants rambled down the bank in an elephantly pace and with orders from the mahout first bent their hind legs and with a splash were all lying down. The bigger tusker even laid down first on his right side, then got up and laid himself down on the left side, so as to wet himself properly.


Then I knew I had to go into the river and touch them, so soon I was wading into the water. I placed my hand on his big tummy and for a moment it did not feel like it was even living. Then it let in a big breath of air and my hand rose up some inches. It was such a wonderful feeling.










We splashed water on him and and the mahout scrubbed him. All this while Hillary just lay calmly enjoying the attention being showered on him. Finally it was over and they again rose up. On the mahouts' intructions they all splashed water over their bodies with their trunks and were off for their evening snack.







Snack time