Crossing this wobbly footbridge to the elephants increased my nerve to get on one. I figured it couldn't be a lot worse. (Sorry about how the text turned out. I made the pictures larger and didn't know it would affect the text so much.)
On the 2 1/2 hour ride from the hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, President Nichols said, "Everyone has to ride an elephant once while you're here and once is enough!" I quite agree. I told him I was trying to psyche myself up to do it for the grandchildren and he said, "Oh yes, if you don't ride I'll tell them personally that you wouldn't do it for them." Dad was more reluctant than I because of having seen on TVelephants break loose from their trainers. But here we go!
The front seat person hangs on to a chain and the back seat person hangs on to the front seat person (for dear life). Supposedly the front feels the shifting of the shoulders more as each step is a side to side motion that I felt plenty. In fact, I kept slipping the entire ride--just a little scary as it was a long way to the ground. Elephants have a very protruding back bone that I'm still feeling the effects from--much worse than an hour on a horse.
The local taking the pictures kept asking us if we were OK and comfortable. We lied and said, "Yes." There wasn't any way to get down that I could see until we got back to the starting place where we climb on and off, from and to a raised area. That wasn't so easy either. I had to help Dad lift his leg up high enough to slide up and the natives helped me.
They asked if we wanted to go down to the water but we declined. I was just worried about staying on as it was. I couldn't imagine stepping down into the water. The Eichelbergers did that and got pretty wet.
So here you have it! The first and last elephant ride (about 10 minutes) for Grandma and Papa, Mom and Dad, Karen and Bill
