Monday 6th Feb.

Trimming sugar cane

We both rested until breakfast time. Setting off in search of a good coffee and a couple of last minute purchases at the market (a lighter, a small sharp knife and a hat for Jordan) before our scheduled pick-up at 8:00am. Derek arrived with the van driver right on time and we met some of the other volunteers; Pauline from USA, Sabrina from Germany, Julie and Elizabeth from France. We had one more stop on our way out of town, and collected Bec from Australia and our group of excited travelers was complete.

The trip took about 1 hour 45 minutes on a fairly decent road, bumpy at times and narrow enough to prohibit passing very often.

The local store

As we neared the more mountainous region in the north, the air began to get hazy with the smoke of the fires - there were many smouldering areas, mostly slash and burn farming, but some due to it having been very hot and dry for quite some time. We passed through small villages, most with roadside stands catering to tourists visiting the nearby temples, like Banteay Srei. Turning abruptly off the highway and onto the main driveway into the sanctuary was a pleasant surprise that we had arrived.



Duck Pond



Master Machete

Derek introduced us to Say and Chan, the volunteer coordinators for the week and gave us an orientation tour of the main pavilion and we were assigned our cabins. The accommodation was basic, but very clean and comfortable, much like those at Elephant Nature Park. Lunch was served, buffet style, as all meals would be that week, and then we had our first chores to do; cleaning the duck/goose ponds - a weekly task of draining, scrubbing, rinsing and refilling. Then it was on to cutting up sugar cane, trimming the outer bark off and chopping into small lengths to make it more manageable for the older elephants and preparing the afternoon treat of banana balls - a mixture of rice, pellet feed, tamarind, cucumber, bananas - served up with water melons, bananas or pumpkin pieces.

Here come the girls!

Then we got to meet the original residents of Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary; Khamlin and Arun Reah. It was thrilling to see these beautiful elephants so close and to hand feed them the treats we had prepared. This would become a highlight each afternoon during our stay. The new arrivals; Dee Poh and Sarai Mia were still settling into their new surroundings.



On safari - riding into town

Later that afternoon, we all climbed into the pickup truck to ride to a local store for any supplies we needed for the week - beer of course - and we bought a couple of cases to split with Sabrina and figured that would keep us well hydrated in the evenings until the next run into town on Thursday afternoon. After dinner we viewed a documentary on the elephant trade in Asia, primarily Thailand and although I had viewed it before, it's shock value still hit it's message home. Retiring for the evening after some social time - it was only 7:30pm - but it had been a very full first day.

Our home for the week - cabin #8