February 2013

After staying in Sri Lanka for about 10 days, went to Havelock Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands – between India and Burma – as I wanted to see Rajan and old logging elephant aged about 61 who had retired and was living there.

We stayed at Barefoot on Havelock Island which was absolutely magical and the magnificent Rajan lived out his well earned retirement in the forest around the resort.  We trekked out along the beach one morning early and found him contentedly munching on the undergrowth by the beach:  he them ambled along to the water, leaves in his mouth for a snack and at the command of his mahout slowly sank into the warm turquoise sea and we scrubbed him with coconut husks to keep his skin clean and free from parasites.  When we had finished he slowly rose majestically to his feet and plodded along back to his home, complete with a bit of ‘shopping’  which comprises of whatever greenery he can snatch on the way!

A truly amazing experience and one I will never forget.  Elephant Mummy lives!!!

February 2013.

Just returned from my yearly trip to Sri Lanka to track my elephant Florence.  She is now 10 years old and is fit and well and living with the wild herds of elephants in Uda Walawe National Park in the south of the island.  As her radio collar is now getting very worn it will probably be the last time we can track her using this method, but she is now truly wild and this is for the best.  However, the maternal element of this is that I would really love to find her one day with her own baby, but I will leave that thought in the lap of the Gods!

NAMAL – BABY ELEPHANT WITH A FALSE LEG;  Visited the Elephant Transit Home attached to the park and saw the amazing work they are doing with a baby elephant that had his leg caught in a wire snare.  They amputated his little leg below the knee and he has a prosthetic lower leg which he manages very well.  See Namal’s story  for a heart wrenching story of how he is coping.  The marvellous vets there led by my dear friend Dr. Vijitha Perera look after him very well and while I was there was thoroughly ‘frisked’ for carrying bananas which Namal quickly found the popped into his little pink mouth!