Saturday 23rd November 2024

I have been seeking an opportunity to take Valerie to see the elephants at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage the whole time that we have been here, and that moment finally arrived today, as our driver, Rohan, picked up at 09:00 to take us there. It is only an hours' drive out towards Colombo, and we went the country route, going quite close to where Rohan lives now, and not that far from Rambukkana where he grew up, so we found that he knew a lot of people when we got there!

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is very much a tourist destination (and the price of a pot of tea alone tells you that!), but the opportunity to see a large number of Indian elephants so close at hand simply outweighs all that. After paying the entrance fee we went to see the elephants being gathered to take them down to their bathing place on the other side of the main road through Pinnawala, where we also got the opportunity to feed fruit to some of the elephants.

As with last time when I was here, my favourite part of the visit was following the elephants down to where there are taken for their daily bathe - which happens in the morning from 10:00 to 12:00, then again in the afternoon (but with a different groups of elephants, as there are getting on for 100 elephants altogether here). We saw around 30 of them, and in a very relaxed way, as we could sit up in the very high-priced restaurant having a very expensive cup of tea!

I didn't object to paying a bit extra for the two pots of tea we had whilst we were there, as it gives you the most wonderful viewing platform to watch the elephants enjoying the water, all clustered at the main point where they enter the water, but eventually spreading out across what is a very beautiful, and fairly expansive shallow stretch of water for them to enjoy. I think we both could have spent hours watching them, as it was such a special thing to be able to do.

Of course, today's photographs are simply a celebration of what was a fabulous visit to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, and another highlight of this 2-month stay in Sri Lanka.













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