More elephants

The week got crazy near the end. On Friday we went up to the Elephant Haven - a huge forested mountainside where the elephants can roam free. It's a good hour hike, then a river crossing and another hour or so right up a steep hillside through lush primary rainforest. The elephants scattered to go hang out by themselves and we went over to see an elephant in trouble. A mother who had given birth five days ago but was so overworked and underfed that she had no milk at all to give her baby. Very very sad situation. Then we had a long walk around the mountains where Pom, an amazingly resourceful Thai lady working with Lek, showed us all kinds of mountain herbs good for elephant medicine. Then she cooked us the most delectable dinner imaginable. A whole range of scrumptious dishes cooked single handedly over an open fire - wow. Afterwards we sat around the candles listening spellbound to Pom's great stories. We slept on the floor in the shack there then a beautiful walk back down the mountain the next day. It had rained thoroughly all night and the river was way too swollen to cross so we had to hike for hours over the top of the mountain and down the other side.

We were all looking forward to getting back to the camp and maybe a shower, dry clothes etc but when we got there - tragedy. The river had burst it's banks and completely covered all the ground at the park. It looked like a mini-tsunami had rolled through, just so much devastation. Luckily most of the buildings were on stilts. We were thinking of heading back to Chiang Mai a day early (as did almost our entire group of weekly volunteers), but said if there's no space in the truck we'd stay. As it turned out a couple of dogs had turned on another one and she needed to go into Chiang Mai for stitches so there went our seats. Divine providence for a number of reasons, one being that most of Chiang Mai was even more badly affected by the floods. Lek brought back photos the next morning of people wading through chest deep water down the famous night bazaar street and motorbikes floating away...

Anyway we mucked in and spent the next day dismantling some accommodation almost engulfed by the river, shovelling mud, shifting debris etc etc. Decided to stay an extra day and did more of the same. Again Lek was inspirational - even having lost so much at the park as well as heaps of damage to both of her two offices in Chiang Mai, she was still laughing and smiling and rising above it all. It was actually an amazing atmosphere as people really pitched in (the Thai mahouts were incredible and dismantled an entire house in a few hours, salvaging almost all the building materials).

Although we never wanted to leave, by Monday night we figured we pretty much had to go or we'd never make it in time to meet up with Woody and Ramsay in Bangkok, and then Rae in Calcutta on Sunday. Then just as we were eating dinner and getting depressed about going, the news came out: The newest elephant at the park, a pregnant female, was about to give birth. That night! How could we leave?

So we didn't. At 11.55pm we watched as Jo Baan gave birth to a healthy 110kg (estimated) baby boy right in front of us - the first elephant to give birth at the park. It's an experience I cannot even put into words. So here's some photos taken early the next morning of the seven-hour old bub.







We only left yesterday but we miss that place so much already and we've promised each other to be back in December, hopefully for a couple of weeks or longer. We love and miss you guys!!!