As Saj was doing his microlight flight over Vic Falls, I wanted to make the most of close animal encounter as I can-this is why I chose the elephant back safari. The ride was about 1-1.5hr and there were 6 adult elephants and 1 calf. I’ve done quite a few of elephant rides, and I give 2 thumbs and toes up for this one. One of the reasons was that they treat the elephants very well, they never hit/abuse the elephants on training, instead they reward them when they do well. The elephants are there by choice, they could easily leave their home and join the many wild herds of elephants that they meet everyday, however, they chose come home to their stable at sunset, that’s gotta say something.

 

I have never seen African Elephants in real life before, so I was anticipating to see how HUGE they are. My elephant’s name was Bob, he happened to be the biggest bull in the herd. He weighs about 5 tons (5000Kg), is 32 yrs old and he is so tall. Initially, I was a little nervous when I had to climb up on his back, if I slip I could be in a lot of trouble. But after 10 mins went by, I was thoroughly enjoying the ride. We went through the open savannah and through the hills and small lakes. There was a guy with a rifle that walked along with us, just in case if we encounter wild herds of elephants. Wild African elephants can be very aggressive, especially when they have calves to protect. Don’t get me wrong, the rifle is not used to shoot them, he just needs to make a couple of shots in the air to shoo them away if they get too close to us.

After the ride, I had a chance to feed Bob as a thank you for the smooth journey and took photos before I said goodbye. Below is a photo of me and Bob and you can see how extremely huge he is  in comparison to the Asian bull elephant.

 

The next day we left Vic Falls and made our way down to Thebe-Kasane where we stayed overnight in a campsite. Chobe National Park is the 2nd largest NP in Botswana and is well known of its elephant population. (approx. 120,000). We were picked up by an open vehicle suitable for game drive from our camp site. It was a 3 hour game drive and true enough, we saw an abundance of elephants. There were literally thousands of elephant herds and they were everywhere..! We encountered many elephants crossing the river, road and even about 5m in front of us, sometimes you get a mother and a baby walking closely together. What an exhilarating feeling to observe them in the wild as opposed to in the zoo with the cages around them. This time, we’re in their territory, this is where they live and they rule the house. So if we get too close to their personal space or especially their young, they will tell us to back off by flaring their ears or giving us a sharp look and shaking their heads… we have to respect that, otherwise someone will get hurt and it won’t be the elephants that’s for sure… 😛

 

We also spotted other wildlife such as baboons, warthogs, hippos, giraffes, buffalos, impalas, kudu, etc. We finished viewing just before sunset and arrived at the camp in time for dinner.