Monday 30 May, 2005

Milk

On wednesday I go up to the hills, to a place called Hapatule, which is near World Ends. World's End is a plateau which comes to an abrupt stop and then plunges 850 metres. If you get there before the mist rolls in, around 9 in the morning, you can sometimes see the 120 km to the sea. Well -that's the word on the street. The family I am staying warned me that increasing diesel fumes and pollution of all kinds means this is a sight seen less and less - but it is one I want to see. Leonard Woolf wrote of seeing the lighthouse on the coast from here, 100 years ago. So I'll be getting up before dawn one mornign to give it a shot (the walk is a few hours).

Anyway, I have been told that near where I will be staying is an elephant orphanage. The baby elephants get fed milk 5 times a day. They emerge from the forest like clock work at exactly the same times every day and queue neatly for their milk. Another thing I want to see. As B. (the head of the house I am staying in) told me this his 70 year old face lit up like he was a little boy.

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