The day started with breakfast in our lovely lodge with the rushing river behind us. The fruit plates were amazing and had all different kinds of fruit. My favourite was the passion fruit – it was tangy!
Driving to he eleflumps we saw lots more horrible palm oil.
We also a saw a spikey pineapple growing. I thought they grew on bushes, so it was cool to see the real thing.
Before lunch we swum in a not-so-amazing hot spring. We had to swim across the bottom of a rushing waterfall to get to it and it wasn’t exactly worth it. Or may be we were just lucky for having gone to a really amazing and super hot one 2 days before.
Then we had lunch. The food was OK, but the table was SOOOOOO OTT. It was kind of them to decorate it, but a bit hard to eat!
After lunch we walked to a local village. We saw some huts where locals lived. Their lives must be very different from ours.
In the village there was an English club where we were expected to teach. Me and Bella hid behind our new friend Jill. Mummy and Daddy were really embarrassing. They sang Head/Shoulders/Knees/Toes, and then the Wheels on the Bus. They then sang Incy Wincy Spider, and it turns out the kids already knew that one!
FINALLY we got to the eleflumps. Here are 2 females.
The first thing we saw them doing is a bit weird so get prepared…….. The mahouts took poo out of the elephants bottoms!!! They stuck their arms the whole way inside and just scooped it out like it was casual! The guide said it was because if they needed to put medicine inside they could, but we think it might have been to stop them pooing in the water.
Next they got into the water and lay on their sides.
We got brushes and started scrubbing them. Their hair was wiry! I thought it was going to be soft. Their skin was rough like sandpaper. They were all very quiet and gentle. The one we got to wash was the big daddy with the humungous tusks.
After we had finished washing him, he got to wash us!!!
Then we fed him little bits of pumpkin and banana.
Then we got eleflump kisses!!!!
Lastly we all lined up with the mahouts on their backs for a group shot.
It was really cool to see little snippets of the eleflumps up close.
Sadly the next day we had to say goodbye to our lovely lodge and to Sumatra.
But Dad made sure we left with a bang and let off a little rocket!
Note from Mum about The Sumatran Elephant:
The Sumatran elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant; All Asian elephants are classified as endangered. The Sumatran elephant is under serious threat from illegal logging and associated habitat loss and fragmentation in Indonesia. The island’s elephant population longterm viability is jeopardised by rapid forest conversion to commercial plantation.
Asian elephants are “flagship” species for their habitats, that is charismatic representatives of biodiversity within the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Because these large animals need a lot of space to survive, their conservation will help maintain biological diversity and ecological integrity over extensive areas and so help many other species.
Here is a bit more info on the Sumatran Elephants
And a bit more about the very worthwhile organisation that we supported with the cost of our day trip, and the purchase of some overpriced elephant sarongs! One of the ongoing struggles we face on this trip is identifying ways to engage with conservation efforts in a way that is truly positive in every way (there so much out there which is labelled ‘eco’, but is really just ‘tourism’….fine unless its actually damaging to the ecosystems they purport to be supporting!