We had to pack up our stuff this morning before breakfast for 8am check out. The last two days have flown by and I'm sure today will aswell! It's surprisingly hot at night here perhaps because we are sheltered by lots of trees but Scott was sweating streams last night! The mornings are warm too, they're not as fresh as when we were in town; maybe that's because we have to walk up about 50-60 stairs every morning so it gets the blood pumping!
This morning we walked up the steep drive to where the minivan is parked, the five of us who are on the three day program were going to do the weekly veterinary checks on today's two elephants, who were Geenie and Easy Rider.
Geenie is in really poor condition because she was used to build Sen Monorom town so she carried concrete blocks everywhere so her back is awful and her ribs are really compressed on to her abdomen. Easy Rider is probably in the best condition out of all the elephants here because she was only ever used for her owner to sit on whilst he poached deer.
So we walked down to the elephant's bathing area, waited a while for them to arrive; we looked through the health check list that we had to do with the elephant, not just scars and open wounds of bleeding from flies laying eggs but if they have redness in the ears or dirt in them, if one eye is sweating more than the other, if they glands behind there ears aren't cool and are warm it could be sign of infection, if their cuticles around their toe nails are sweating too much or bleeding it's sign of dehydration. Pinching the skin behind the legs to see whether it bounces back or stays prominent sticking out is another sign of dehydration. To check their lady bits don't have infections because some owners used to chop the outer layer off for traditional medicines but this now gives the elephant infections. (Milot had an infection that was around a metre long in her vagina from this reason)
We had to weigh them, however you can't carry an elephant size scales into the jungle so we had a measuring tape to put around their bellies, one person had to fling it up over the the dip behind their heads and then the other person to pass it under the belly and it had to go in front of the nipples. With these measurements some mathematic equation that was beyond my brain today.
This all sounds pretty easy but it's not as they don't stay still very long when they're being touched because these two elephants have been in the project since 2007 so they've gained quite a lot of natural instincts back so we weren't allowed to get too close to their backsides and we weren't allowed to touch their trunks incase we got trunk slapped. We couldn't touch their bellies or feet because they are very ticklish! So we had to try and keep up with them by walking next to them, it was easier when they had banana trees to eat because they would stay still a littler longer.
I worked on Geenie and spotted that she had a lot of fly bites or cut herself scratching as she had lots of spots of blood underneath her belly.
So Ruth has to supply the mahout medicine to apply to her cuts and fly bites now to make sure they don't get infected.
We sat with the two elephants for a while and chatted, then a very hot and sweaty walk back up to the road to get the minivan down to base camp. We were the first group back from morning outings, we are educated that we know lunch dong is at 12 noon now so we were lingering about the kitchen because first dibs are way better than getting them when your 10th in the queue. Food was really good today; morning glory and beef stew and another dish which was a mushroom soup but had all different sort of mushrooms in it but it was delicious! So many different fruits as well, a new one today but not sure what it was, soft like pears but brown.

After lunch out team were on volunteering, today's jobs were to clean up Sambo's mess that she made last night (she got loose from her chain and ate 15 trees in the banana field) she didn't eat them all just stripped them and took the heart of the tree out for the juiciness off them. So naughty! Especially after the group this meowing were going to get 40 banana trees from the local coffee plantation for her. So we had to try to re route some of the ones she pulled clean out of the ground with bulbs and roots still attached, try to cut the trees flat and clean so that they will regrow and produce bananas. These trees are heavy and you don't realise how much juice there is in the tree trunks; no wonder they adore these things!
After cutting them down we had to carry the trees down to camp to keep for the elephants, although Sambo made an appearance at the elephant for bath so we kept a load by there for her. She is nearly 60 and worked in tourism in Phnom Penh her entire life begging on the streets doing circus acts or walking around the main attractions with tourists on her back, so her feet are really bad condition, all of her grips have been worn away and she abscesses on them so she has iodine baths every morning and she cooperates well with her mahout as she picks each foot up for him to wash and scrub. You can tell she is in pain because when she is stood still eating she is constantly picking up one foot at a time to rest and relieve pain. She also was kept in compound when she wasn't walking around the city so she lost a lot of muscle mass, so between her bad feet and not being able to walk far or on walk on forestry (mahouts make pathways for her around the base camp so she can gradually build muscle mass and get her feet better) she has a huge scare on the ankle of her left foot which is from a military solider in the Khmer Rouge who sliced her her on purpose, her back is in bad condition from carrying tourists... She isn't in great condition! Apart from the fact she has put on lots of weight and is finding it a lot easier to stand up. Her tail is also cut off, poachers do this because an elephant's tail hair is sacred and one hair can be worth $5 so a tail full of hairs is going to get someone a lot of money.

It's been so incredible to watch these animals, every single one had different personalities and you can see it in them all. How they act, their speech and gestures to one another, their reactions around food and people, their instincts with the forest and how they eat and approach things. Some approach food and new areas of forestry or water a lot more precariously than others. They are wonderful creatures and as much as this is a wonderful and the best place for them to retire and spend the rest of their life's it's sad to some point that the animals find it normal for us to be around then because it's not what they're used to or it's not what should be normal for an Asian elephant.
We have learnt so much about these animals, it has been an enjoyable, fun learning, knowledgable experience that we will take with us always! We do love these incredible beautiful and interesting creatures!

We got back to town and got dropped off at the cafe that is owned by the EVP, they bake 'proper' cake and not your rubbish slither pieces. Slabs of cake that is gorgeous and fresh and the teas are 'proper' English teas with COLD MILK! What.... How excited was I to perch my bum down and buy everything!
We met up with Caroline, Alec and Alecia for dinner and had a good old chin wag about life and the universe!
Early morning risers for all of us in the morning going different places but we will hopefully cross paths again in Vietnam! If not we always have NYC or Switzerland to meet them! :)