Elefantastic

Before we even got on the plane to India, we both had high expectations for today and saw it as a high point on our trip.... No pressure then!
We were picked up from our guest house by Jaheer, one of the smiliest men I have ever met and owner of the freshest smelling taxi in India!
After a short drive out of the city we arrive at the Elephant village and the home of Elefantastic.
This was our elephant for the day, her name is Massah and she is 23 yrs old weighing in at 4.5 tonnes!

We spent time getting to know her and building her trust in us.


This is Shakir he has been training and riding Massah for 17 years, he is preparing her lunch of mallet, a type of bullrush / reed.




After feeding and petting Massah we then were shown how to mount our elephant so that we could go for a short ride.
This is how you are supposed to do it


And here is mine and gems graceful attempt....


There is also some brilliant video but I won't share that just yet, I'm keeping it for her 40th!




we then went for our own lunch at Rahul's house, his mum is a fantastic cook. We are here with Vicky and Tom who we met yesterday on the tiger safari, and then happened to be there this morning too! Stalkers lol x

I don't know about you, bit after I have had lunch in a strangers house, I love nothing more than a bit of elephant painting! We could have had a template sketched on and colour it in, but we just went freestyle.









Time now for a drink, and flipping heck an elephant can put some serious amounts of water away!
We fill her trunk using a hose and she takes in about ten litres at a time and the. Squirts it at high pressure into her mouth.

Location:Jaipur