Monday, January 16... Off to see the Elephants!

Hello again all of my faithful blog followers!! 

It was another one of those up at 5:00 AM mornings again today.... I had to be up, get showered, finish packing, get breakfast, and be down at ELEPHANT NATURE PARK office by eight o'clock this morning.... Mission accomplished!

The sign outside the office.

Everybody getting signed in.

And then it is off to the van for our journey.

After about twenty months I have returned to the Park.

The Elephant Medical Center at the Park.

The last time I was here there was about Forty dogs... Due to the floods in the recent past here in
  Thailand  they have been very busy in the dog rescue department... There are now over one hundred dogs here!! Many of the dogs I remember from my last visit, but there are many new faces. This dog here is in the healing process after losing a leg. There is another dog here that also has three legs, and another old dog that is both blind and deaf. As I am typing this there is a dog about every three feet in their beds sleeping. There are many different types of rescue animals here at the park. You will see more of them in the coming days.

There is now around forty Elephants here at the Park also.

Most of the herd has lived very hard lives, and here they get to retire with dignity.

One of the Elephants outside the clinic waiting for some food.

One of the families out in the distance.

Amazing Creatures!

You can see in the distance that there are some young ones here too.

Someone needs a shave!

Want food ~ They spend about eighteen hours a day eating!

Each Elephant has its own special diet that they get.

Moving along ~ I believe this one actually has a broken hip, but she still gets around pretty good .

This one is at the clinic due to an injured foot... Many Elephants end up getting foot injuries from stepping on old land mines in the Jungle.

One of the three dogs to avoid here ~ There are three biters!

This basket has a great diet in it ~ It will make for one happy Elephant!

This Elephant wasn't as impressed with its diet ~ Squash ~ Yuk!!!

A couple more of the big girls out in the distance.

Walking on past the clinic.

Feeding time up at one of the platforms.

They feed us well here ~ Lunch...

Big Animal ~ Big Poop!!!
It is actually just like giant Horse Poop.

The daily Elephant bathing ritual that we get to be directly involved with.... There will be more pictures of this in the days to come. 

Mix telling everyone where they will be shacking up at.

We all got settled into our rooms, and met back up for dinner... I will post some pictures of the room in tomorrows blog.

A meet and greet in the evening so we can all introduce ourselves and get to know a little bit about each other. There are about sixty volunteers this week from all parts of the World.

After the meet and greet it was back to my computer to try to get the blog caught up, and then off to bed. I have to be up in the morning to find out what group I will be in, and what our jobs will be for the day. This isn't just a come visit the Elephants kind of week ~ there is also a lot of hard work involved helping to keep the Park functioning properly, and making improvements to the facility. This is one of the most rewarding type of vacations you will ever take, and also very memorable. There must be something about it ~ I came back for seconds.

I hope I will have the privilege of sharing my adventures with you again tomorrow, and Thank You for visiting my blog today!

Have a Great Positive Day!

Leo