Abby got her preferred 12.5 hours of beauty sleep before we had to wake her up. Wow. There's a really wide gap in natural wake up times: from Beth at "bizarrely octogenarian-like way to early", to Robin at "why are you still waking up when a 6 year old wakes up" to me at "just right" to Abby all the way over at the opposite end of Beth at "never, if she could help it".
Breakfast was great... We basically emerge from our room, go to the little outdoor eating area, sit down and wait for awesome food to emerge. In Nimal's judgement we trust.
We weren't leaving until around one for our next adventure - elephant hunting (with a camera!) - so I asked Nimal if he could take us to a place that had carvings. Predictably, he did know a place! We jammed into the back of his Tuk Tuk, with him and his super cute four year old son driving in the front.
The factory and shop were pretty impressive. They gave a little demonstration of the way they make natural dyes, and had some in-process carvings that were pretty cool. They also had some really big pieces, though I'm not sure how many people have room for this $20k monster, carved out of a single piece of wood.
The factory store was huge - I think if Gram ever came to Sri Lanka, this place would be on the no fly list for her. There was a ton of nice stuff.
Beth and I were drawn to some more modern looking elephants that we hadn't seen elsewhere. The kids hated them, so that was our cue to order and have one shipped home. We were able to squeeze a bunch of other small things in there too.
When we got back to the hotel, it was time for lunch and to get ready for the afternoon. The kids had some time to play with Nimal's kids, and Beth was able to take what will no doubt be her last attempt at becoming a documentarian....
Eighteen hundred years ago.... Eighteen hundred years! King Mahasen diverted rivers for the purpose of irrigation in Sri Lanka, and created 16 irrigation tanks. Sounds small right? The "tanks" are actually huge lake areas, two of which have been turned into National Parks that are home to several hundred wild Asian elephants - Minneriya and Kaudulla National Parks. Nimal arranged a jeep for the four of us and a British couple named Andy and Jenny who are staying at our hotel - they are really nice, and actually live right near the hotel we'll be staying at in London at King's Cross.
The driver whisked us away for the thirty minute drive to the park entrance. Which park you go to depends on where the elephants currently are. At this point of the year, it's considered the best time to see the elephants, as they are drawn to the receding reservoirs in what's known as "the gathering". They used to think the elephants went to the water for drinking, but it turns out they love the newer green grasses that grow in the mud of the parts that used to be underwater in the wet season.
When we got to the park, the driver stopped and removed the soft top cover, and we were able to stand and observe while driving.
We spotted a bunch of interesting wildlife on the drive in through the park. We really liked watching the tufted grey langurs - huge, "old world" monkeys that are normally quite shy, but we saw them playing in the trees right next to the road.... Tyndall luck!
We also stopped and watched two Toucans, as they perched on a dead tree. When they finally took off, their flying style was cool - they fell, swooping to the ground, skimmed just above the ground and looped up to rest on the next tree a hundred meters away. Abby, of course, did not believe us that they were toucans.... She argued that the fruit loop box (which I swear she hasn't had before!) had a toucan with rainbow colours on the beak... Oh man, we need to get these kids back to school... ASAP!
The weather was really starting to turn bleak, and we were a little concerned after we hadn't seen any elephants after about 45 minutes of trolling along the edges of the huge reservoir. Eventually, we rounded a corner and saw a beautiful, wild tusker. He was amazing. He was hanging out with another male (you'll remember that unless it's mating time, males lead a relatively solitary life.... I guess they don't have elephant specific beer, ESPN or bikes, so there would be no reason to associate with other males anyway), eating away at the grasses. We kept our distance from the sometimes volatile males and drove onwards.
Not to much later, we found our pack of females, babies and teens. Amazing. It was so nice to see them in the wild - their skin and features looked so healthy compared to the ones we'd seen at the sanctuary in Thailand, and in captivity in Kandy.
We all got a kick from the obvious, quite obvious, two males in the group. The driver pointed out that they were in heat - no shit, we could all see the new trunk that had grown between their legs. We even saw one half hearted attempt at a mounting.... Yikes! Robin was especially in tune to the location of the males.... Lol
We noticed one large female keeping her distance from the group, pointed in the direction of the jeeps and we surmised that she was the enforcer nanny for the group. Sure enough, when the rest of the pack started slowly moving their way forward toward us, she began to head in our direction with purpose. The drivers didn't need more warning than that, we all backed off.
On the way out, we spotted two wild elephants going through what looked like the local dump. That was a sad sight to see. You would think they could cordon off the area to prevent the elephants from coming in. It certainly doesn't look good from a tourism perspective.
The kids were babbling, full of energy on the ride back. It was so fun seeing the elephants in the wild, especially after spending the time to learn about them at ENP in Chang Mai. We leave Nimal and his family and his excellent little inn tomorrow. It has been such a chill experience for us, and a great opportunity for the kids to get close to some fantastic local people.
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