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March 15, 2006

They're not dolphins

I’m going to take a break from cricket between the second and third Tests. Before going to Mumbai I’m heading off to a place called Kipling Camp in Kjana to meet a friend from university. Olly has been longing to go to the camp ever since he read a book by Mark Shand called Travels On My Elephant. The elephant in question is called Tara, and after Shand’s travels he left her to live at Kipling camp where she is well looked after and is something of a visitor attraction.

Olly has been obsessed with elephants since he was in an incubator it would seem, but Tara has become a source of particular fascination for him, and our visit seems to be taking on the feel of a pilgrimage. It’s taken a great deal of planning to organise the trip, although not by me. I’ve left all the graft to Olly and my travel agent, Barry. We’re travelling separately and both have to get planes, trains and lengthy lifts along what promise to be rather bumpy roads.

Once we arrive and I’ve left Olly and Tara alone together for a few minutes, we are going to spend three days looking for tigers, leopards and the like. I’m sure Olly said something to me about swimming with elephants and this sounded like fun. I was talking about it briefly with David Gower who is very keen on conservation and first visited Kipling Camp twenty five years ago. I said I was particularly looking forward to the bit where I’d get to swim with elephants. “They’re not dolphins” he said.

It turns out that what I can actually expect to do is have a bath with an elephant. All I insist is that it gets the end with the taps.

Posted by Miles.Jupp at March 15, 2006 10:28 AM

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