Melons and Bananas, Tuesday 19th

There was quite a disturbance about 4:30am this morning, a lot of trumpeting and calling from the elephant enclosure. At first I thought it must signify the arrival of the newest member of the herd, but it settled down too quickly for that. Fortunately the dogs were quiet until around 5:30am, but the new guests at the park now know that we were not joking about not getting to sleep in!

This morning we worked in the elephant-kitchen. This week instead of washing the fruit I spent some time whacking water melons into quarters with a machete and then a truck arrived, full of more water melon which we unloaded by hand! Three of us sat atop the load and tossed them one by one to the loading dock where they were caught and stored. It took well over an hour but was fun, a good work-out and the squishy bits at the bottom were perfect for a water melon fight ….. I needed a shower after that!!!

This afternoon we waded across the river to the banana tree plantation and weeded around the trees and pulling off the dead leaves to use as a mulch to discourage the weeds growing back too quickly. Afterwards we had a swim, in the Mae Tang River to cool off, which felt wonderful after a good days work.

This is the ninth night I have spent in the park and once again dinner was not only delicious but the variety continues to amaze me. I don’t think there has been much repetition and not having any meat is not an issue at all …. Maybe I’ll become vegetarian!!