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What: #84 Swim with another wild animal

When: April 8th
Where: Sapana Village Lodge, Nepal
Why: On my 2013 list, I checked off "Swim with Dolphins" and have wanted to find a way to swim with something else ever since that experience. Mostly, I was looking at other marine life, possibly whale sharks in Honduras or manatees in Florida. It didn't cross my mind that swimming with elephants would be an option, but then I traveled to Nepal and that all changed.

In the region where we visited, it is common practice to take elephants into the forests surrounding Chitwan National Park as safari transport rather than jeeps; the elephant scent masks our own, and animals aren't bothered by them approaching closer than a jeep could get to them. After the safaris, the elephants are bathed to keep them healthy and clean. The lodge where we stayed had their own elephants, and we were welcome to join them in the river and help bathe them!

The sight of a huge Asian elephant rolled on her side and splashing in the water was not something I was prepared to see, but she loved it! I'd climb onto her side, she'd roll up to stand up and I'd have to scramble to stay on; on this matter, I was not always successful and ended up in the river a time or two. To get back on, she'd lay back in the water or let me climb up by raising her back foot for me to remount. On her back, she'd shower me with sprays of water from her trunk while I rubbed down her ears and her head and her neck. Her mahout gave commands for her to roll back into the water and I'd scramble again to stay on, eventually getting pretty good at it! It was definitely a great way to spend a warm afternoon in southern Nepal!

She rolled and I rolled off...I got better!

Let's be honest, there's no graceful way to do this...

Chhop!