Today we had a bit of a lie in after the excitements of the Perahera, and then set off to Pinnewala elephant orphanage, a few hours drive from Kandy.When we arrived it was raining quite heavily but luckily it stopped. We firstly walked into ‘the garden’ where the elephant herd was grazing altogether. There were so many elephants of all different sizes from babies (one which was 32days old) to huge bull elephants!!! There was one elephant who had no front right foot- i think it had been caught in a trap, but she was doing so well keeping up with the others.

Then two of the baby elephants were taken to the feeding pen on their own and we went to go see them being fed. After a while most of the crowd dispersed before the elephants had left but we stayed a bit longer to get some better pics. This turned out to be a VERY wise move as it meant that we could stroke them and feed them! We then walked with them back up to the herd, spent a few more minutes with the herd and then walked down to the river ready for bathing time.

We waited for a while and then suddenly we heard them coming! They appeared over the top of the slope and rushed down to the river. Because we had got there early we had seats at the front and so an amazing view!
We then stayed for an hour or so just watching them and having lots of pictures taken! we got really close to them, but weren’t allowed to touch them but it was amazing to watch.

We then walked back up the road and called in at a few of the shops, which sold elephant statues hand made clothes and things like that. At the end there was an elephant dung paper shop!! Basically they sell paper and other products made of elephant dung!! The money made goes back to the orphanage. We saw the process of how it is made and it has been awarded for its environmental friendliness!

We then left after an amazing day and headed back to the uni.