Meet Dinu. I met Dinu when him and his friends took me and some other tourists on a crazy jungle ride to chase elephants. I was a little nervous because I'm not so much of a wild life person and I was with all wild boys who were ready to push the limits!! But the second I met Dinu I felt safe, there was something very calming about him. We were standing in a tree house looking out for elephants and I asked him how he got into elephants. He looked at me and said, "My parents were killed by elephants." I could tell he was serious. He went onto explain that he grew up on a jungle road and one evening when his parents were walking to temple elephants killed them by picking them up with their trunks and throwing them into a ravine.
Flash forward two hours. I was standing in the middle of the jungle, my heart beating so fast as we watched a group of elephants move toward us. I looked at Dinu for reassurance. He looked at me and said quietly, "Don't worry, we are safe. We are being careful and they can sense we are respecting them. Stay here next to me and just don't surprise them. They won't hurt anyone." I flashed him a look like, are you CRAZY?!?! BOTH of your parents were killed by elephants!!!!!
He continued, "I know, I know, Let's just watch them naturally, be calm Heathie" (what a lot of Sri Lankans call me).
The elephants snuggled each other and made a low but very loud purring sounds, it was INTENSE to be that close. On the way home in the jeep I was trying to express myself about the experience, rather inarticulately - "They are SO big and weird, you could really see that they loved each other."
Dinu said, "I know, I know what you mean. I just want to sleep as close to them as possible. Some nights I drive my jeep into the jungle and go to sleep in the back. Packs of elephants just crowd outside the jeep pressing against it and knocking it- purring and squealing all night. I sleep good there."
Such a rad photo!
ReplyDeleteWow. Sounds sublime.
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