On August 7, I did post a comment on Beate's blog in reply to her question: 'Are Elephant babies hard and rough to the touch?'
Finally now I can show her, and all my readers, the pictures to that reply. They are surprisingly fuzzy and soft! Very cute, smart and mischievous creatures:
Travel back with me to March 11 of 1990. We were working as consultants for Pond's India and on Sunday we left the hotel very early at 6:30 AM, together with a staff member from Pond's, Sarath Chandra and his lovely wife Sudha. Wish I could get back in touch with them again... Her mother lived in Hyderabad, that's all I know as they moved away from the Ooty area in the south of India.
If you click on this map, you will find Ooty towards the bottom (to the right of NH 67!). That's where we stayed, an old British Hill Station high in the mountains.You can find out more by clicking on the hyperlink.
The Doddabetta is Ooty's highest peak at 2,623 meters, one of the highest in South India and famous tourist place.
We drove through the Mukurthi National Park to spot the Asian elephant and other wild life as we went on our way to Mysore, you can see that city straight above Ooty on the map, as we were making our way through two more National Parks.
Here we stop alongside the road that led through the Sanctuary. Just a break + snack...
The mountains in the back are in a mist...
Looking down from that bridge, we could see the elephant droppings, lower left corner alongside the dried up stream. It was a very dry season and that meant those elephant bulls would be dangerous due to the lack of water...
We got lucky! Alongside a hill we spotted soon some bison and elephants! Just look for the elephants above the letters Ele... This is zoomed in from quite a height. Very exciting to see and hear them.
A wild peacock crossed our path...
Here a Muntjac deer or Barking deer looking at us...
Oh and here we have the baby elephants!
Demonstration how those soft and fuzzy babies pick up money with their trunk.
One man didn't give any fee and the baby-elephant grinned with a twinkle in its mischievous eyes.
It gave some change of its own, by squirting mud from his/her trunk - soiling the man...
I swear that it laughed for doing this; they are very intelligent!
It gave some change of its own, by squirting mud from his/her trunk - soiling the man...
I swear that it laughed for doing this; they are very intelligent!
Fuzzy and frolicking baby-elephants... so cute!
Now they get their reward; a nice bath.
Baby-Elephant SPA...
Will show you another time about Maharaja's Palace in Mysore!
