Colombo, Sri Lanka was a port that offered a new adventure. Mary and I seized the opportunity to visit an elephant orphanage! In 1975 a group of people decided to rescue seven orphaned baby elephants. Those elephants not only survived but thrived! (I was going to say little elephants but someone would say that was an oxymoron).
Nine years after the original rescue effort, the first baby elephant was born at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. With the help of local and foreign elephant experts, Pinnawela has become a conservation and educational center. The original orphaned baby elephants have seen their grandchildren born at Pinnawela.
The excursion was listed as lasting 9 hours. I read the details. It would take three hours to get there. We would observe the elephants bathing in the river. We would then have lunch. After lunch, we would walk up to a different area where we would observe baby elephants being fed. Then, we would board the bus and return to the ship.
The three hour bus ride was unlike any other. It was not exactly like Disneyland’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride but very similar to it. For one thing, in Sri Lanka, they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. The road was one lane each direction. I am trying to think of a more diplomatic adjective than “aggressive” to describe our driver’s approach to the vehicles in front of him. There was much honking and swerving on what was already a winding road. This gave me the feeling we were about to have head-on collisions. Imagine feeling this way for three hours.
Some of my readers might question; “Helen, why didn’t you just focus on the countryside?” In addition to experiencing the sensation of bracing for impact, there was an unusual visual barrage. All three hours of the journey up to the Orphanage was on a road with advertising on both sides. It was like driving on University Avenue all the way to El Centro. Between billboards and signs and buildings, I felt like I was being exposed to some sort of movie demonstrating extreme in signage.
Before I describe my experience at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, I wish to mention that I have had other elephant experiences.
Aside from my visits to our world famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, I had the wonderful opportunity to see elephants in the wild in 1990 when I went on a picture-taking Safari to Kenya and Tanzania. A few years ago I showed up in the parking lot of the Sports Arena early one morning to see the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus elephants walk from the train to the arena. I also have special feelings, even to this day, for Dumbo The Flying Elephant. I am aware there have been unfortunate abusive practices in handling elephants. I am glad that the circuses are discontinuing using elephants. I say all of this to admit that a lot was riding on this excursion for me.
I am happy to report that the excursion surpassed my expectations. Once we got off the bus, it was an easy downhill walk of about a block to the river. On both sides of the narrow street leading down to the river were a variety of souvenir shops. Just as we started to walk down the road, we encountered elephants being ridden by men coming up the road. This was exciting. I was told that these were the male elephants. They are the first to come up from the river.
We were told that we had about an hour to observe the elephants as they bathed in the river but we needed to be off the walkway at noon because that is when the elephants move to a different part of the preserve.
Once I reached the river, I found the view amazing. There were about fifty elephants spread out in a wide expanse of a shallow river. There were mother elephants and their babies. There were about ten people supervising the elephants. I am searching for a word like “idyllic” to describe the scene. I felt this was the highlight of the elephants’ day and their care providers enjoyed it too.
We were told to be off the walkway at noon but this was not a sacrifice because an excellent buffet had been set up for us and we could enjoy our lunches while continuing to enjoy the view of the elephants playing in the water.
One aspect of the buffet which was a surprise to me, but a welcome addition to most of my fellow travelers, was beer. Exceptionally large bottles of cold beer with artistic pictures of lions on the labels were welcome on the hot day.
After lunch, we walked up to a different part of the preserve to observe the baby elephants being bottle fed. There were entire classes of school children enjoying the elephants too.
That reminds me of an interesting observation that I made while I was watching and reading all the advertisements on the way to Pinnawela. There was an emphasis on babies, children and families that I had not seen in any other country.
I certainly recommend a visit to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. When I returned to the ship, I learned from another cruise passenger that she went by train to the Orphanage. If 6 hours on a bus is not your thing, you can go by train in your own private train car. That’s how I will do it if I am blessed with the opportunity to come again.