Elephants

I've been watching a lot of TV and DVD's whilst I've been recovering from pneumonia over Christmas, so was delighted to find this programme about one of the first elephants to be brought to Britain.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09jcxrj/attenborough-and-the-giant-elephant

It reminded me that I used to be taken to London zoo as a child, and once had a ride on an elephant there !   I assume it would have been an Indian elephant, although 'Jumbo' in this Attenborough film was an African elephant, trained to carry children on its back. Maybe that's what started my life-long passion for these animals.   

Isn't this one fantastic ?   The red colour comes from the red soil of Tsavo in the south east of Kenya.   

And elephants about to cross the Ewaso Nyiro river in Samburu in northern Kenya ... different coloured soil = different coloured elephants !

I took my mother on a trip to The Ark in the Aberdares when she visited us .... there is a sort of underground bunker below the hotel, where visitors can get up close and personal to the elephants .... there is a dimly lit water hole/wallow by the bunker, and at night the elephants come and drink, presumably well aware of the tourists just a few feet away from them.   An occasional trunk will sniff at the opening in the bunker wall !  It is wonderful to be so safely close to them, where one can hear their rumbles, smell them and almost touch them.