We had a brilliant week at the Sanctuary, we felt like we had done a lot of meaningful work which hopefully will make some difference, even if only small to that area. It is good that Lek, the founder of Elephant Nature Park has taken it upon herself to help animals not only in her own country of Thailand but also of Cambodia. In the future the land will hopefully be managed by the Cambodians under the umbrella of Save the Elephant.
We had many wonderful experiences there and met some amazing people but there was one night that neither me or David will forget in a hurry, thankfully it was our last night there and not the first.
Every night we had this military operation to get into the mosquito net over our bed without letting any
beasties in, I would get in, then David like a stealth warrior would switch of the light and sidle in,with me clasping as much of the mosquito net together as I could. We would then safety pin it together. Some nights we were really good, some not. Anyway on the last night we got in and settled down to sleep, I awoke with a tickly feeling at my ear and put my hand up to it. In doing so I think I pushed a mozzie in, if not it was heading in anyway as I could feel it, buzzing and moving about in my lug. I tried to stay calm and thought it would come out but it just kept squirming, so squealing slightly, I awoke David saying "It's in my ear, something's in my ear. " he tried to get it out but couldn't , we had to hold a torch beside my ear so it would crawl towards the light, oh my lord, it was awful feeling it wriggling away. It did come out though, gives me the collywobbles thinking about it even now.
At this David decided he needed to go to the loo, so we had to go through the military operation of him getting out off the net and then back in again. On getting back into bed he said he had a sore armpit, I looked at it and there was a tick firmly latched on. So by torchlight I had to pull it out and then we had to try and kill it , all while in our bed! Lovely, I tell you if it had been the first night I may not have made it to the second.
Some of the seeds we planted.
On our last full day we walked through the jungle with orange cloths which had been blessed by
Buddhist monks, these are tied to trees and it is then a sacrilege to harm that tree in any way.
A couple of mahouts who did the walk with us. 
Saying goodbye to the elephants.
Some of the plants we planted and below is the banana trees we weeded. 
In the photo below I was concentrating on the butterfly who was fluttering around for ages. It was only when it moved its head that I realised there was a lizard on the plant in front of the butterfly, if it had stayed still I would have been totally unaware.
We hope to return in the future to see how the Sanctuary is getting on but I will be taking ear plugs with me, keep the beasties out.
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