Hug Elephants was today's activity, a sanctuary which cares for the elephants with no harm and no riding. Although many people believe that these beast should not have human contact, our guide explained the benefits of this as it stopping them causing harm if human contact does happen.
The truck ride to the sanctuary was a bumpy one on the roads, never mind the dirt tracks once we hit the jungle. To ensure that the elephants are not caused any distress by noise, no vehicles are allowed anywhere near the sanctuary, so a long walk downhill (at this point we didn't account for how downhill we were walking, but on the way back this was VERY clear) in the jungle started our visit.
We met our guide Limbo who was a great laugh but who also liked to scare the living daylight out of us all...well Char. As we set off through the jungle to find the elephants with our bags full of cucumbers, Matt and Limbo set her up big time, with Matt pretending he wasn't sure which was he had gone, Limbo jumped out of the bush, grabbing Char's ankle. Yes she screamed like a girl, causing the others behind her to do the same. Walking into a field of 8 elephants and having a bag full of cucumbers over your arm is not an easy task and is one that plays highly with your nerves. With Limbo shouting for us to 'stand your ground' we watched the elephants charge towards us. He had explained how smart elephants are, and even with their size and weight, they can start to run and stop within centimeters of you. Matt got into the feeding of these beasts, whereas Char still stood there shaking as she tried to get the cucumbers out of her bag as quickly as she could as typically the BIGGEST one had taken its position in front of her. The elephant started to get a little impatient as she took out the cucumbers and instead of waiting, it tried to force its trunk into her bag, pushing her further back into the jungle. Until today, Char had always believed that Matt was her knight in shining armour and that he would save her from anything and keep her safe....well today she found out the truth. If the thing she needs saving from is an elephant he is well out of there and will leave her to it and just shout "There's nothing I can do!" Once the cucumbers were all gone, Char managed to make a dash for it as the elephant was still sniffing her with its humongous trunk for more. Limbo had also joked about the elephants snatching cameras and warned us to be careful. While taking a photo of the group on our GoPro, he slung it to the ground and Roger the elephant scooped it up in his trunk. Our hearts sunk....over 8 months of photos were on there. Limbo then started to shout 'Elephant Selfie!" And yes that is what happened....Roger took a selfie!
After some fried chicken, yes you heard that right, the first time we have eaten fried chicken since we left home, we set off on a jungle trek where Limbo struck again. This time he had hidden a snake shaped object in the hollow of a tree, he pretended to catch it and threw it at the group. Yes we all screamed this time. We made it down to the river and from behind we ward the cracking of branches as the group of giants made there way through the forest to join us. They just make their own paths through. First came the mud bath, but we are not sure who was bathing who as the elephants jet washed us all with thick mud. Once we had covered them in mud, we followed them into the river to scrub them down. These huge creatures do not have reversing beepers or parking sensors so we had to be light on or feet and ready to get out of the way at any second. The elephants enjoyed laying about in the water and playing together. They rolled about under the water and on top of each other, kicking each other out of the way like little kids. It was one of those situations where after the elephants had left, we couldn't believe it had happened. Char even got a big kiss (suck) on her cheek from one of them.
Carrying on our jungle trek, passing rice paddies and beautiful scenery, we made it to a waterfall where we were able to wash the remaining mud from ourselves and prepare ourselves for the hike back.
After an awesome day we chilled in the hostel with a few beers.

M & C xxxx