Today we spent with Elephants!
We fed, watered, washed and rode these fantastic animals, that have been rescued from Burma and Cambodia where they are still used for illegal logging.
Immy and Rigs were reluctant to get up and ride them at first, but after a while they were having a great time.... until!
The 'King Bull' Elephant which is kept well away from the female elephants was having his afternoon walk on the otherside of the hill to where we were riding ours, as he can get a little feisty if he gets amongst the females, and the females get a little bit jumpy when he is about ( I've seen his manhood, it is completely understandable)
Anyway, whilst chomping on some leaves the 'King Bull' gets stung on the trunk by a nasty bee that sends him into a bit of a stuper and he decides to ease the pain with a little run...... in our direction! The first we know of the situation is all the elephant attendants are rapidly trying to get us off the back,s as this massive bull is charging down the hill at us. One thing we learnt today about elephants is that if one sees another one running it wants to run aswell, so within moments we are in the middle of an elephant stampede, sitting on the back of an elephant that wants to join in!!
Needless to say, Immy and Rigs freaked out. I was with Immy who once off the elephant, I grabbed and held very tight as two large elephants charged past me at great speed, and they were followed by two more. it really was quite scary!
The scene settled to leave our group of 10 stood on this hillside all looking at each other with wierd disbelief, for some of us this turned to nervous laughter and giggles, for others it was not a happy place.
We walked back down to the camp, and the owner very kindly rose to my suggestion of free beer.. so all was well for Cole family anyway, and another great story for the blog. Immy and Rigs recovered from the experience far quicker than most of the adults did there may well be some akward Tripadvisor reviews poppng up soon.
Anyway the day came to a close and they were still looking for 3 elephants! apparently it's never happened before, they were extremely apologetic, and to be honest a little lucky that it didnt turn out worse
From my perspective you couldnt pay for a greater experience, Just dont expect me to do it again!
This is Steph on the terrace of our bungalow, it is very pleasant indeed
Hey Guys,
ReplyDeleteWell i have managed to finally catch up with the blog!! Oh my god about the elephants that sounds truly terrifying, and they are lucky that nothing worse happened. will keep an eye on trip advisor to see if any feedback is made.
That magician seems awesome am not surprised that the kids enjoyed him.
All good here, as you know Mum and Simon on the boat as i can see from a comment they made they obviously needed a break :) i can understand that with 2 precious brutus now. Dexter is unwell at the moment, got temp etc, change of seasons etc. But things beginning to settle down now, Scott back to work Monday. Went to look at Windlesham nursery yesterday for January and looks brill for both boys so that is great.
Anyway, hope to skype soon. Missing you loads
Love ya
Em, Scott and the boys
Wow - scary but a great story - I can see that one serving you well in future; perhaps you could embellish with where he was stung??
ReplyDelete(still awaiting a tooth update)
Streuth! Your encounter with the elephants sounds just a bit too far on the wild side for comfort! Glad it didn't turn out badly. If that's the sort of mishap you're likely to be prone to though, it might be best to cancel that 'swimming with sharks' booking!
ReplyDeleteWe're at Henley helping Simon Piper flog yet more Dutch barges. His new style boat, launched here yesterday, is a 49ft version with an aft cabin and a raised aft deck. Very clever design. Loads crammed into a relatively short boat, but we're certainly not envious. Grizzled Skipper is much better. We'll head back down to Pentonhook on Monday and be back at Woodstock by early Wednesday. Bott's due back at work on Monday,so Ganma's return to help Emm with Dextrus may be extremely welcome and I shall get back into my dump-run routines! Love to Immy & Riggers.
xxxxxxGrumpy Gramps