It’s because of elephants.
I am incredibly excited about my trip but if it wasn’t for elephants, I wouldn’t be going.
I really wouldn’t.
It doesn’t seem so very long ago that I wrote a post about finally taking the plunge and studying for a BA at the University of Gloucestershire. And yet now, too soon, my degree is finished; my assessments written, fretted over, submitted, fretted over and graded; and I’ve graduated with first class honours in Creative Writing. So that’s nice.
And next? Well, seeing no immediate reason to abandon my student-y ways and get a proper job, I’ve decided to take a gap year… or rather a gap month and a half.
And for that, I am, as Kim Wilde would have it, flying to Cambodia.
I’m volunteering for three weeks at an elephant project in the mountainous jungle of eastern Cambodia. It’ll be amazing to be living in real jungle rather than …
…a make believe Gloucestershire version. I’m looking forward to seeing tropical birds, tropical insects, reptiles, plants and flowers almost as much as I am the elephants.
Yes, I am.
And after volunteering at the elephant sanctuary, I shall look about me, rub my chin, and do a little solo travel before meeting up with my brother to travel a bit more.
I was planning on taking my laptop in order to write and blog… when not snuggling elephants, of course. But that has proven too heavy to lug on my back through rain forest – along with six weeks worth of other stuff. But I am packing my camera and, if possible whilst at the project and on the hoof, I hope to share pictures of what I see on Instagram. (If you don’t follow me already on Insta, there’s a link to my account on this page – or a quick search will find me.)
And if you’re wondering about my whole elephant obsession thing. Well, we all have obsessions and particular loves, I guess. Mine just happens to be elephants. Always has been. Maybe it was kicked off by Dumbo, maybe it was Colonel Hathi, maybe… pfft, who knows what it was. A trip to a zoo’s elephant house as a toddler? Whatever, but given the opportunity, how can I not grab the chance to work amongst, touch, smell and care for elephants?
I mean. We’re talking about bloody ELEPHANTS for goodness sake.
