"Rivers in Asia are longer than elsewhere, more rich
      in alluvium - that is, murkier: As you reach for a mouthful,
      your cupped fingers ladle silt and one who has drunk this water would prefer it spilt."

   Having spent the best part of an hour up to my chest and fighting the current in the, newly swollen, Ruak river the line - even half remembered - kept spinning in my head.

   "Like the colour of coffee only not nearly as brown"

   That's Paul Kelly talking about an Australian river but on the few times that the eles weren't in the river this afternoon and I was concentrating on the texture of the thing it looked like my memory of milk added to instant coffee.

   What happened yesterday?  I turned my back for a day and the river rose from a calf deep, warm brew, to a chest deep force of nature - too smooth to be a torrent but just as likely to move you downstream should you lose your footing.  More on where I went yesterday later in life, but normally at this time of year I expect a mahout to come to me and say that the river's too deep and we have to start filling the pond for bathing; so when, on this sweltering cloudless day no-one came and I had done my e-mail I went to the river where the babies have been hanging out every afternoon recently and find out what was going on.

   They were all damp when I got there and K. Pom gave me a pretty descriptive, language barrier aside, impression of Tong Suk and her swimming skills - what, you mean you took her in? - once a day for the smallest but the others love it.

   I went for what I thought was a wade and was promptly swept downstream, even though the water is only up to my chest there's no keeping my feet, no swimming against - you bring my (your) babies in here?

   So when Tawan arrived, fresh from a noisy three year old's tantrum, leading Nong Pleum and he threw himself into the river, over his head and got washed away - with one bad leg from the car accident that bought him to our attention and a history of being swept away (blogs passim) - I was aghast (sitting on the Burmese bank) about to take to the plunge and affect a rescue.

   Nong Pleum does a whale impression and unseats K. Sompong, the mahout audience on the Thai side are clutching their sides in hysterics, Pleum plants all four feet on the ground and turns to watch Sompong being swept away towards Tawan.  Tawan decides he's too far away from his adoptive sister, rights himself, and swims like an otter against the current...

   ...and I'm not being nice because he's my boy, no sign of difficulty whatsoever, like one of those flipper footed Australians who win all the Gold medals, like Captain Nemo's "Nautilus" hunting down a treasure ship, like an otter (I may have mentioned); on his way past K. Sompong - mere human being swept in the other direction despite all four limbs working in coordination - hopped onto Tawan's shoulders and the two of them sped upstream.
   
   This is a three year old elephant with a gammy leg.  

   Of course the adults arrived, towering above us with all four feet on the ground and causing (creating) eddies and currents of their own, causing us to be swept away, spraying everything in sight and wondering what all the fuss was about; current, what current?

   But you can take it from me, when anyone asks you how strong swimmers elephants can be, feel free to echo received wisdom (I'm not one for believing received wisdom) and you can use the otter word if you like.

...the photo below was taken two days ago - the river has risen four and a half feet since then and still the babies love it!