Yesterday we did our 2nd elephant trek. Our mahoot pointed to the ground where there had been a tiger's footprint in the mud 'several days ago'. (Dave is now on a computer beside me looking up tigers attacking elephants on utube hmmm...) This print is about 500 metres from our guesthouse and 300metres from where Dave & I had walked alone in the jungle behind the waterfall. Wont be doing that again :) We rode Tao, the only male elephant of the six elephants here in Tangkahan, Sumatra. He is 20 years old. He was being being bitten by horseflies while we were on his back. Our mahoot snapped off 2 small branches to use as fly swats for Tao. Obviously we weren't going a good enuf job because Tao snapped off his own branch and swatted himself with much more force than we had been using! Both Dave & I copped a horsefly bite, so we just swatted ourselves after that!
Our mahoot was chatting away to me in Bahasa. He told me he has been to Melbourne Zoo & later gave me the mobile phone numbers of 4 of the zoo keepers there. Ele, ranga & gorilla keepers. So we will go to melb zoo & take them photos & say hi from him.
Dave scrubbed all of Tao's feet later in the river. I have awesome video footage. It was soooo special. I got totally soaked by a cheeky ele spraying me from her trunk :) Afterwards, we went to our mahoot's house & met his wife & child and his friend wove a bracelet onto my wrist. I hope whatever plant it is passes customs! Then we played badminton with them. Quite badly! Afterwards we ate dinner alfresco, jungle style, chatting with Netherlanders while watching monkey silhouettes leaping from tree to tree.
