Elephant Reserve

Today, Friday the 25th, we began with an early-morning walk of the camp and the exterior roads. It was a misty and wet morning, so in addition to picking up litter where we saw it, we were checking the voltage of the electric fences to make sure they're still strong. After breakfast, though, we packed our bags and grabbed some sack lunches in order to spend the entire late morning and afternoon at Kwantu's elephant reserve a little ways away. Just recently, Kwantu opened up an elephant reserve on a nearby plot of land to take in elephants that would otherwise be culled in national parks like Kruger where elephants are actually overpopulated. They can't reintroduce many of these into the bush because they're accustomed to humans helping to provide for them and take care of them. For instance, the four recently arrived from Kruger National Park actually sleep in a massive barn every night.

We started our work at the elephant reserve by fixing some wire fences that were in disarray. We spent our morning doing that and cleaning up excess barbed wire left over from when the property was a farm. After lunch, we got the barn ready for the elephants by fixing their food, water, and baling hay for them to sleep on. Once we had that all figured out, however, we were free to go find the elephants in the bush and interact with them. We walked about a mile across the plain to a massive cactus forest. It really surprised me that the prickly pears look really similar to Texas ones, except they grow up mostly more than they grow outwards. These cacti were up to 15 feet tall it seemed. All of the sudden, four of the elephants appeared from within the cactus and came over to us. It was incredible how such a huge animal could still be concealed rather easily out in the wild.


The four that we met were the ones from Kruger National Park and were all female. The oldest was 18, two were 11, and the last was 9. The size difference between the eldest, Amarula, and the 9 year old, Ngdevo, was still pretty substantial even though Ngdevo isn't a baby by any means anymore. They came right over to us and were just grazing along as if we weren't there. The only difference was that if you offered them a big tuft of grass or shrub, their trunk would come over to grab it from your hands.


We walked along with the elephants as they grazed for a good hour or two, as these four were slowly processed back toward the barn by their handlers. They were really majestic creatures and obviously very intelligent; they're capable of expressing emotions like depression or bashfulness in addition to normal ones like rage. They preferred pats or scratches on the head, between the eyes, or right in front of their ears. Their texture was really course, and felt like sandpaper with millions of little hairs sticking out from the wrinkles. We got them back in the paddock near the barn and at that point, we got offered to ride them around. Even if a trainer was leading them from the ground, I definitely wanted to get on one just to say that I've ridden an elephant.


We got back to Kwantu around 5 and had just enough time to shower and get cleaned up before we had a Friday night braai, or South African barbecue, up at the mess hall. Myself and the five other guys (all Brits) helped Avance, our coordinator, cook the meat and before long we had a feast prepared. It was more food than we normally have so everyone thoroughly stuffed themselves. After dinner, we went back to the Cub's Corner, the lodge were the majority of the volunteers are staying, to light a campfire and enjoy snacks and drinks purchased in town specifically for the braai. We had all sorts of chocolate, chips, candy etc.


The highlight of the day, however, wasn't the elephant interaction but the night drive myself and 11 others took out on the reserve. Night and early morning drives are supposedly the best time to see game, and we definitely saw more than I had at any earlier time put together. Over the course of two hours, we saw the sole bull elephant, cape buffalo, and massive herds of springbok, blesbok, waterbok, and wildebeest. We even saw an anteater from afar, a jackal, and some spring hares, which are these crazy rabbits that look like they have a squirrel tail. At one point, we drove into a clearing and there were blesbok and wildebeest completely surrounding us; probably 200 sets of eyes reflecting the lights from the car and our spotlights. It was pretty incredible. Overall, a really really great day and the best one so far, even if we had missed the lion, rhino, and some other notable animals on our night drive.