October 4, 2014

The morning began with a pickup at the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and then out to a game reserve where we rode elephants. Our elephant was Tuska. He is the largest of the elephants and the dominant male. He is around 43 years old. They are very comfortable to ride, although it is quite a spread to ride them. They are much more comfortable than a horse or camel. Their skin is so rough, feels like a car tire. Their hairs are very bristly and their trunk is like a nose- moist on the inside and is always sniffing or reaching for something to eat. We rode through a stream and saw a tower of giraffes- had to be about 8 of them. Learned that the darker ones are the males, although the young males are light and they have no hair on the top of the horns. The females stay lighter and have hair on their horns. As we rode we saw a troop of baboons, several Kudu and some other antelopes and lots of wart hogs and a couple Giant Owls in one of the trees.

At the end of the ride we were able to feed the elephants. The ones we rode have all been orphans. It takes a year and a half to train African Elephants. They only are ridden max 2 times a day since they need to spend most of their time grazing, 16 hours approximately. They have babies only about 5 in their lifetime. Their gestation time is just less than a year. They can't bread until they are about 14 years old. It was fun to feed Tuska and just be so friendly with the elephants. I had never ridden one before. It was a fun morning and the temperature was just right. Following our ride we had breakfast made over the bbq and headed back to our hotel.