Elephant Haven

Yesterday after lunch, the volunteers, mahouts, 4 dogs & 9 elephants set off for Elephant Haven - a large piece of land that Lek owns, on top of a mountain. It's about a 3 1/2 hour trek with elephants (although if you were walking without the slow beasts, I'm sure you could do it in about an hour). Once at the Haven, the elephants are allowed to roam freely throughout the night, and then we round them up the following morning.

Accomodations were basic. It's a bamboo shelter set high off the ground, with three rooms & blankets on the floor for sleeping (we all chose to sleep outside on the bamboo deck instead). Dinner, despite being cooked over an open fire, was incredible. 8 dishes, plus rice - yum! Managed to sleep well until 3am or so, then I started getting really sore from lying on the bamboo. Didn't sleep after that, but it was nice to sit & watch the sun come up.

Managed to find all the elephants but one (Lilly's apparently a rather sneaky elephant who likes to shove dirt in the bell around her neck, so that her mahouts can't hear her.) We set off with the 8 elephants & left 1 mahout to search for her. Set off for the Park with 8 full & happy elephants.