Camping with our elephants!
Our plan is to leave at 7 pm Christmas eve. In the afternoon we find some time to buy and pack some little christmasgifts for the whole team. Just before leaving the T-shirts are delivered, and we can pick up the posters and flyers. It just takes a couple of minutes before the bus is loaded and ready to leave. We were able to do everything we hoped for this week, end of preparations, now it will start for real! After 16 hours of driving we arrive at the family of Mae Lai Tong, where Silver Flower and Sri Nuan are staying right now. It still feels a little strange to start making our camp at the village, our in the field with the elephants. The grandfather of the family, mister Duang Madee, is taking care of Silver Flower and Sri Nuan now.
He was also the one who, when Silver Flower arrived here, took a look at her wounds and saw she had an infection beneath her skin. Now he has put up a tent in the field to be able to watch the elephants day and night. What a caring mahout! When Lee told the family a little while ago that we wanted to stay here with our team and the elephants for a week, for the mahouts and the elephants to get used to each other, the family first worried there house wouldn’t be good enough for us. No worries, we just need a piece of land to camp!
First we look around at the village, but because we would rather stay close to the elephants, and we don’t want to be too much of a burden for the village, we decide to go to the field where our elephants are standing. There we look for a place to put up our tents. The grandpa says we should just sleep at the village, he will stay with his tent, with the elephants. He doesn’t see us camping in the field with so many people. But when we have found a good spot, and start unpacking, he starts laughing about all the campingequipment we have brought.
Our camp looks fabulous. We have made a little kitchen, a real picknicktable, six small tents for sleeping, and a sheltered place to relax with a lot of cushions. In between of the eucalyptustrees we have hung up our Bring the Elephant HOME banner. But most important of all: we will be able to watch the elephants! When we have finished making camp, grandpa Duang steps on his motorbike to fetch his wife, Mrs. Yan Madee. Nong serves his Christmas dinner made above the fireplace, there’s Chang beer, there’s Christmasgifts, and we celebrate another highlight: we are now really camping with our elephants!
And cows…
