We finally got a lay in today – until 7.00!! Still got jelly as part of breakfast – it’s actually not too bad once you are used to it. Then we were off on our elephant safari. We were seated in a wooden basket on the elephant back with 2 others and for a while it was almost more uncomfortable than the bus but then the mahout got Melissa to move across for balance and suddenly I had a whole load more room to sit in. For a while we again only saw deer despite going through really thick undergrowth, being hit by branches. Suddenly all the other mahouts started shouting and our elephant went from a slow plod to a slightly faster plod and we came out into a clearing where we saw 2 rhinos. We followed them for a bit through some more thick undergrowth and out into another clearing but then our time was up and we had to head back. We then headed down to the river to see elephant bathing time which involved them getting a good scrub, a good soaking and them soaking a few tourists for good measure. The sun has finally come out and whilst it was not mid twenties we finally managed to get into t-shirts.
We went back for lunch which was the same as the first day – pah, mushroom soup – then we had a couple of hours spare. Then it was on a bike, along incredibly bumpy non paved roads which took a lot of concentration not to fall off, along to the elephant breeding centre. The centre is home to the first pair of elephant twins ever born in Nepal. Sadly, they were chained up and the food was put so far away from them that they could only just reach it. On the bike ride back we saw sunset at various points but by the time we got to the river which is the best spot we had missed it. That evening it was dal bhat for dinner again followed, by special request from us, by apple fritters – they were just as good as we remembered!!