Sitting here in the dewy morning chill I have decided to write about the beginning of the warm season which, I am sure, means the temperature will drop and the heavens will open.  I have three markers of the end of winter all of which seem to have become noticeable in the last week...

1, An emotive night jar 'chaunk' in the night - reminds me of night time elephant transport on a sandy river bank in Nepal - but also of a warm day just finished and a warm day to come despite the cooling air.

2, Bamboo 'popping' in the afternoon - not quite sure what's going on here but in the first few genuinely warm days of the year the bamboo forest seems to be constantly exploding (and no, Jason, it is not the elephants eating it).

3, As I am literally about to testify in my shirt-sleeves, when the sun pops above the horizon you can immediately feel the difference.

Fair enough, the first two could happen all year round and my noticing it at the beginning of the good weather may well be a symptom of my being able to comfortably sit on my balcony, with a beer and a suitably pachydermish periodical, after work (that mentioned, the 41st edition of Pachyderm is available for download - though I have to admit the article I was reading pertained to the other thick skinned creatures back in Chitwan and my International Trust for Nature Conservation hat) for the first time but still, it feels like summer.

Which means the river might be low enough to try an experiment - last year Nong Pleum and Tawan didn't go into the river until very late on because Tawan was just so small and timid, well now he's a three year old tusker and proud of it - nothing is too challenging for him, you may remember he and Pleum took a dip earlier in the year and got washed away, well, I guess it is time for a little elephant to learn to swim...



...first a bath, a bit of a bucking bronco thing going on with Nong Dah, but who wants a mahout in the river anyway?  Well, she wants the mahout in the river obviously but that's not what I meant - you'll notice Nong Pleum lost hers (Tawan never gets one).



...then off to find the deep enough part...



...and then a short swim to the far bank, luckily you don't have to teach an elephant to use a snorkel - like ducks to water - next job is to teach them to drink, pampered as they are they haven't yet made the connection between the stuff that runs down the river and the stuff that comes out of the hose, they'll be demanding San Pelligrino next (though I guess it is a sad reflection on the modern elephant being divorced from their natural habitat).

Still, at least they can swim now which makes them more qualified to live by the river than most of our staff and their mahouts - let's hope they don't get it into their heads to swim too far!