During my time at Elephant Nature Park I was honoured to be invited to take part in the rescue of another elephant to ENP. It was tough, mentally and physically and I was exhausted at the end. This was a truly amazing experience, and will certainly be a highlight of my life.

We set off from ENP in the evening so that we would arrive early morning in Pattaya. That part of the journey was uneventful, just the odd pit stop on the overnight drive.

Arriving in Pattaya we collected two more ENP Elephant Ambassadors, Dave and Beau, who had been working on the rescue as well as feeding and monitoring the elephant so that she would be good to travel.

The transport truck was loaded with ele food and water for the long trip home, and we went to collect her. This is quite an involved process with paperwork from vets (verify the microchip) and police (authorisation to transport). The process took most of the day before all was in order. The ENP team and ele ambassadors have been through this many times so are now expert!

I got to meet her later that morning, and large beautiful ele, but blind in both eyes. At least one eye was deliberate we suspect. She was reluctant to load into the truck but after some difficulties we had her loaded and ready to depart again shortly after nightfall. This is the best time to travel to avoid heat and stress for the ele.

So for the next 18hours my bed was the tarp on top of a truck, with our beautiful ele hitting me regularly with her powerful trunk. It is an amazing experience to sit to close to these magnificent creatures, so I did not mind being kept awake for the entire journey. She was keen to smell the air all the time, wondering where we were going and probably hoping to smell something familiar. When an ele rests her trunk on your legs you can really feel the power and weight. One flick and she could easily throw me off, but thankfully she was kind despite her abusive past at the hands of humans.

As we arrived close to ENP she was excited to smell other elephants in the air, and I think suspected she was near her new home. Little did she know that at this home she would be free from abuse and elephant rides for tourists. Very tired and exhausted, just like us, Dun Dee (her new name TBC) stepped off the truck to her new pain free life. 

This was St Patrick’s Day – and one I will always remember. Thanks to Lek, Darrick, Dave and Beau for allowing me to share in this.