A wash and a bite to eat with the elephants of Chitwan, Nepal
Elephants don't like cooked vegetables. Chanchal Kali turned up her trunk at cauliflower, marrow and carrots – a shame, because they were grown in the garden of the Travellers Jungle Camp at Chitwan in Nepal.
Her mahout, Prem, apologised on her behalf, but explained she didn't like the spot of oil that was dropped into the boiling water that had cooked them. And why, you wonder, had we (shamefully) left some vegetables? Because Ram and his wife Sushila, the owners of Travellers, are too generous with the size of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Of course, it is possible Chanchal Kali was just full. She may already have drunk her daily 200 litres of water. Or maybe eaten her 14kg of padi and who knows how many kilogrammes of elephant grass and simply couldn't fit anything more in.
It was a surprise for us to learn that elephants eat padi, barley, wheat, molasses and salt. Prem, who prepares her food (as do all the other mahouts, who care for the more than 100 elephants in Chitwan), spends hours each day making up what they call bundles. Taking some elephant grass in his hand, he rolls it around to make a little basket. In the middle of this go the above ingredients. Chanchal Kali eats hundreds of these every day.
There are elephants all over the place in Chitwan. They used to be owned by royalty and officials, but in 1963 they were transferred to his majesty's government of Nepal.
The highlight for us was bathing Chanchal Kali. She was disporting herself in the river among seven other elephants having their daily bath. At the urging of Prem, she came out of the water and knelt down for Jeremy, Sophia and Granny to climb aboard. Time after time she sucked up trunks of water and showered great spouts over us. Then it was time to scrub her using elephant soap, which is sand and mud from the river's edge. Chanchal Kali rumbled her appreciation as we lovingly coated her with sand and then scrubbed it off.
Suddenly, her trunk rose from the water. Had we done something wrong? No, she just stroked off some sand that had rolled down her forehead into her long, long eyelashes.
Clean and comfortable once more, she waited for Prem to climb aboard: then rose to her full height and walked slowly back for a lunch of a 100 bundles.