Day 4 – Elephant Whisperers and Sun Down Safari

Today was another early start – 5:30am! Just a 15 minute drive away from the hotel was a fantastic company called Elephant Whisperers. They allowed you close contact with real African elephants! The 6 that we saw had all been rescued in one way or another yet the most heart warming story was probably that of Tembo (a name meaning 'elephant' in Swahili) – the 3.4m high 6 tonne elephant who was rescued from being killed in another park as he had a terrible temperament and in one rampage had killed 3 rhinos and 5 water buffalo – he was simply too dangerous to be kept alive. But Elephant whisperers came in and took him on and is now as gentle as anything – or this is what head keeper, Brighton, told us.

We were shown all the different parts of these beautiful creatures and were allowed to feel their trunks, eyelashes, backs, tails and tusks.

 

The skin of the elephants was bizarre – although it looks like dry hard leather it is actually quit furry and incredibly permeable. This was clearly demonstrated when Brighton poured water on one of the younger female’s backs – in 20 seconds her back was essentially dry from where the water had soaked though. The eyelashes and tail were also peculiar – they felt like plastic and the inside of the elephant’s ear flaps are actually incredibly soft with their ears in front not behind or underneath the flaps. They use the flaps to either cool off by flapping them or keeping warm by flattening them against their bodies or as a warning sign that they are about to charge – when elephants do charge, the flaps go flat against their heads.

 

The keepers trained the elephants like you do with dogs – with commands and rewards – not the disgusting beatings Asian elephants get in order to break them down to a life of captivity when they’re put in zoos – African elephants are too strong to try and break with a whip, after a while they would go against their keepers and put lives in danger.

Here, through the use of the reward system, the elephants are happy as they can spend most of their day in the wide countryside – eating and sleeping as they please with a bit of loving from lucky guests like us in the morning as they wake up.

What was reassuring was the fact that when elephants are unhappy, a gloopy hormone will be excreted from the tear ducts which will alert the keepers and would show us all that the elephant is not pleased with its treatment. However, all the elephants either had no secreting hormones or a very thin liquid like water which apparently they secrete when they are very happy. The whole experience was truly amazing – there are many more interesting facts about the elephants like the circumference of their front foot doubled is the height of the elephant that I could tell you but I don’t wish to bore you.

Whilst talking about the elephant that had laid down for Brighton as he talked us through their biology, the largest elephant Tembo (as I mentioned earlier) was brought into view. I think we all got a bit nervous as if felt like he was as tall as a double decker bus. We thought that 5 foot’s distance was close enough but oh no, they want to give you the “FULL” elephant interaction experience so we all had photos with this mammoth elephant who was not even fully grown. Standing under the beautiful beast was scary yet also incredibly exhilarating! I felt truly privileged. As we let the other few people who were there with us have their turn we noticed that the other elephants had all been fitted with saddles and started to secretly hope we’d be put on the smallest elephant which must have still been 2-2.5m off the ground.

As the last couple finished their photos we were told this was the part where we had the chance to ride the elephants. When we booked the experience we knew this was part of the interaction but now it came to it we were all very apprehensive. This was then multiplied by a thousand as the ginormous Tembo was fitted with his own super saddle – double the size of the rest’s. It then became real panic as Brighton announced that my family and I would ride Tembo – OH SH**!

We were taken to an especially high platform in order to hurl ourselves onto his back. We grasped the two rope handles until out muscles went white. With no stirrups like a horse we were just clinging on for dear life! They took us on a small trek around their mini sanctuary over this small peak and back down to the platform. After about 5 minutes I actually started and then fully enjoyed myself – it may have helped that a keeper, Zachariah was riding Tembo with us but he wasn’t even on a saddle (he sort of took “no hands” to another level).

Overall the whole experience was truly breathtaking and insightful – I can safely say I now have a beautiful new favourite animal.

We then went back to the hotel for a late brunch and chilled around the pool. However, it was far too cold to go in – like ice after the cool nights they have out there but the sun was still hot enough to sunbathe in for a while.

At around 4:30pm we got ready again and headed out for our sun down Safari back at Kruger National Park. We got there and headed out just as the park was closing for the public so the ride felt truly unique. Whilst on the track, we saw some more water buffalo, rhinos, warthogs, vultures and even a massive herd of elephants with two ‘tiny’ babies.

One was apparently about 4 months old and was especially cute as they feed with their mouths until they are 6 months old and for all this time they don’t know what to do with their trunk – they’ll even try shaking it and trampling on it to try and get it off!

We also found another white rhino:

 

We then continued further into the park but had a small break to admire the gorgeous South African sunset across the Savannah – it honestly felt like we’d entered “The Lion King”. 

 

 The sun was soon gone with all the light with it so the guide gave us massive searchlights to scour the undergrowth with. We saw a porcupine which although does not sound all that 'cool', it really was as it had its quills up (sorry for the awful picture) :

We also saw some sleeping giraffes – they sleep with their neck still straight (to stop them being too vulnerable) which looked bizarre. We also saw lots of impala which after a while almost became annoying as they were so frequent  and could often be mistaken for other animals’ eyes as this is all the torches could pick up.

However, we did spot another elephant herd which quickly moved on after they heard the 4x4 but we were luckier with some zebras who stuck around for a while. One of my favourite parts was when we got to our guide’s favourite night-time spot and she turned the engine off. We looked up and gazed in wonder as we could see the entire milky-way – it was phenomenal! I’ve never seen anything quite like it – it was so beautiful and it makes me sad to think we miss it due to all our light pollution. We could even see a satellite moving in its orbit. We then continued on and glimpsed an African wild cat – even with the searchlights, it was difficult to see. However, I think this also made it more special and exciting when we did see something. And just on the way back – about ten minutes from our drop off point we found three elephants – one of them slightly younger. As our guide edged the 4x4 forward to get a better position, the older elephant mock charged at us. He opened his ear flaps, scuffed his feet and even trumpeted at us – we quickly retreated. It truly was a special, one of a kind African experience and certainly something you’d NEVER see in a zoo – even at night.