Tuesday 7th Feb.

Cleaning out the elephant poo

Khamlin

We woke very early as we were not quite adjusted to the time zone change - but being able to doze a little bit longer until breakfast at 7:00am was welcome. We still felt the effects of a long trans-pacific flight and missed connections in ICN and BKK. We cleaned out Khamlin's shelter, she spends the nights there as it is safer for her, at age 70, than being out in the jungle overnight.

Transplanting banana trees

Joe the gardener

Next, we were introduced to Joe the head gardener and the man responsible for the food producing gardens at CWS. Heading over to the banana plantation, armed with shovels and picks, Joe showed us which trees were going to be dug up and the correct method of root pruning before relocating the trees to the vegetable gardens, where they would have more room to grow and have regular watering, but also, importantly, they would provide much needed shade to the young vegetable transplants from the scorching afternoon sun.

Planting vegetable seedlings

After lunch Jen arrived with Pauline 2 (the 8th volunteer for this week) and it was elephant bath time - a trek through the dry tropical forest to a small, dammed off reservoir, which created a pool big enough for Khamlin to have a good splash and clean up. The volunteer group were all armed with buckets and helped rinse her down and dislodge some of the mud and debris that had accumulated on her upper body.



Banana ball mixture

After a quick snack on sugar cane, Khamlin headed right for the muddy area to coat herself again in a layer of natures sunscreen. Banana ball and sugar cane preparation was next on our work list, with the addition of roasted pumpkins today, making for some variety in this afternoons feed.

 

Relaxing after a hard days work

After supper, we viewed a documentary on the rescue of the CWS elephants and another of the use of elephants by humans, leading to serious dwindling of their population in the wild. It had been another hot and busy day, which we almost managed to extend to 9pm!

A typical supper buffet

 

Breakfast - fruit and yoghurt

The Toaster