The purpose of our visit to Courg had been for one main attraction. That of getting to go to an Elephant camp where we could bath, feed, and ride some elephants!!! The elephants at one time had worked for the government helping out with projects that required heavy lifting and pulling – but the ones at this camp were all retired and living a life of ease. All of us really enjoyed this experience and loved getting to have such a personal and hands on encounter with such magnificent creatures. I think this day will definitely be counted as one of the high lights of our entire stay in India. It was just so cool!
To get to the elephants you had three choices. You could rent a raft and paddle yourself over across the river and up stream for awhile (for a hefty price), you could have a boatman take you across the river for a minimal price, or you could walk across the river for free. We decided to take the boat over on our way to the camp, but then opted to walk in the water on the way back seeing as we were all dripping in sweat and it sounded so refreshing. It also added to the enjoyment of our experience as well and provided some fun family swim time too!
Waiting for our ride across the river
Bringing down the elephant we’d get to bath!
They actually had a rule that you couldn’t at any time be near the feet or stomach of the elephant (like I am taking this picture) as it can be very dangerous if the elephant chooses to stand up suddenly- but I didn’t know that at first and was able to snap this picture! As you can see getting to interact with elephants isn’t just cool for a tourist, but for the local Indian people as well!
Bringing another elephant down to the river for its bath.
We got to help bath three different elephants during our time at the river.
To wash an elephant we were instructed to throw water on it and then we could rub mud off of it with our hands. The care takers of the elephants had bristley brushes that they used, but getting the mud off was actually quite difficult (Elephants throw mud on themselves when they get hot to help cool themselves down).
Elephants are actually super rough and hairy. Their hair is almost like needles its so rough and pokey, but it was definitely fun to feel its skin and talk with it, and have it squirt water at you out its trunk!
After bathing with the elephants we were then able to feed them in this area. They had hay for you to hand feed them and take pictures. We all loved this activity! There is just something so cool about the feel of an elephants trunk taking something out of your hand.
They even had a few baby elephants at the camp too. Not sure if these fella’s will be used later as work elephants for the government or not, but they were sure cute none the less.
I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this on the blog yet or not, but in India there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE. They are mostly completely harmless during the day, but can become very territorial at night. We never had a problem though living in the city as there are almost always people about, but you certainly don’t want to be alone with a pack of dogs by yourself down a dark alleyway! Here the dogs are hoping for a little nibble of our sour cream and onion chips Adam bought for a snack! Dawson is also holding up two Maaza Mango drinks that have become all of our favorite beverage while here in India. We are sure they are LOADED with sugar, but they are like nectar from the Gods. We love them!
There was a HUGE line of people waiting to ride the elephants so we decided to go and take a walk around the camp while we waited our turn (they did it by numerical order of your ticket). We loved exploring and found some great little paths which led us to getting to see even more elephants!
This was the line of people AFTER us. Crazy!
Waiting for our family elephant ride from the top of the platform.
They put you in this padded cage thing of sorts that you can stick your legs through to ride. Usualy 6-8 people are squished inside at a time.
One of the things I was so bummed about was that we wouldn’t get any pictures of us from the ground ON the elephant since we were all up top. But they actually had a camp worker who would take pictures for you if you handed him down your camera. Only problem was – he somehow switched to cartoon mode or something because all our pictures came out looking like they’d been painted or drawn! Grrrr. But it is what it is, and at least we can laugh at our cute little cartoon selves!
Then it was time to head back to the car. This was the river we got to walk cross and swim in.
We even found a few “slick rocks” to slide down! So fun!
As usual, we were pretty popular with the Indian people and many people asked for pictures! These two guys sat and played with the kids for almost 20 minutes letting the kids splash them and drench them in water!
We loved all the pretty vegetation around the lake, and I especially love this funny pose from Brans!
What a crack up!
The rest of the day we spent traveling home to Bangalore, which should have been a 4 hour drive but ended up taking 7. We stopped in a little town for lunch which was an area that India set aside for Tibetan people who had fled their own homes when the Chinese came in and took over. The Indian government felt bad for the Tibetian people and actually signed a document giving the land to the Tibetan people for 100 years. Its getting close to the 100 years being over, and its expected that a new creed will be signed giving them the land for 100 years again or indefinitely. The Tibetans certainly have made a wonderful little city for themselves!
Another amazing day in India!