Day 6 - Elephant Sanctuary and Blyde River Canyon





7:55am

The Elephant Sanctuary is just a 20 minute drive from our resort. There are two elephants at this location in Hazyview: Kasper and Kitso. Not far from the roadside is a little collection of wooden pathways that lead to a collection of straw huts. As we arrive, monkeys jump from the top of the trees and make their way down to the wooden walkways towards us. There are monkeys everywhere -- this is common throughout South Africa. Signage exists in most public areas warning you not to feed the monkeys. After a few run-ins, I can see why. 

 Inside one of the straw huts is the sanctuary's reception area, where we sign our lives away (in case we get trampled, thrown, squished, bludgeoned, run over -- you get the idea). Since Grandpa D and Grandma C visited the Elephant Sanctuary on their 2017 visit and count it as one of their most memorable experiences, we decide it's worth accepting the risk.   

 Our guide gathers the two kids and me-- and we take a short walk through the woods to visit the elephant night quarters. Here in the elephant "living room" he gives us a rundown of all things elephant: where Kasper and Kitso sleep, what they eat, and other interesting facts about how they came to be with the sanctuary. 
[Kasper was once owned by a German family. Eventually the elephants they owned became to big and unruly --eating oranges from the neighbor's orange grove-- and while the neighbor shot one elephant, an electric fence killed another; so, Kasper was the one elephant left. He was then rescued and brought here]

 The night quarters enclosure resembles a large building from Jurassic Park. One area is blocked off as space for the large/elder elephant, Kasper, and a smaller yet ample space is where Kitso sleeps. [Kitso means "wealth of knowledge"]

 Our guide leads us to a covered platform with a few chairs facing a wall full of educational information/the anatomy of an elephant. I realize how little I truly know about these animals. For instance, the tusks of each elephant are not of the same shape or weight because they have dominant sides; the dominant side is shorter. They have 16 sounds for communication, but humans can only hear 5 of these. 


 Now that our brain is about to explode with this new understanding of the elephant, we head to a third location -- a gathering of logs in a small clearing where the elephants will join us. Here, trainers position Kasper and Kitso in front of us and introduce each elephant. The kids are first to walk up to Kasper (the larger one) and the trainers point out each part of the elephant for Eve and Landon to touch: trunk, ear, belly, elbow, knee, bottom of the foot, tail, and finally he instructs Kasper to open his mouth for us to peer inside and see his molars and tongue. I also get a turn (after the children) to touch the elephant. His sheer enormity is imposing, but there's not a moment where any of us feel afraid. 

 Afterwards, we walk to our last destination where we each walk an elephant hand to trunk and then feed both of handfuls of food pellets. Walking an elephant is a bit of a misnomer. The elephant is really walking you. Our guide instructs us to reach our right arm back and cling to the top part of the inside of Kasper's trunk with four fingers. I reach back into a moist clammy trunk and Kasper pushes me forward in more of a speedwalk for most of the distance. Regardless of the sludge on my pants, hands, and neck, I can't help but smile at the thought of walking with an elephant. 

10:45

In a totally different kind of exciting experience, we drive north toward Blyde River Canyon. There are a few trails that (for a small fee) we can gain access to the grounds of a South African resort and traverse the rocks and streams towards waterfalls and grand vistas. 

 Landon sleeps everywhere we go. He says it takes us too long to get anywhere so he'd rather just sleep. He is the most well-rested of all of us. 

 We arrive at the Forever Resort Blyde River and make our way to the picnic/play area adjacent to the open camping spaces available here on the property. Afterwards, we find our trail markers and decide that a 1.5/2 hour hike is probably the best idea. Grandma C and Grandpa D haul out their hiking poles and the kids take off jumping down rock to rock. About 10 minutes in, I wonder if this is truly a good idea to attempt this trail (Literally jumping rock to rock over a stream) with two people who've had major back surgeries. I am happy to report that there were no injuries. The kids and I would explore farther down the trail and David and Cathy would eventually catch up as we wait intermittently to see them round the corner or successfully scale the rocky ledge.

 The kids begged me to scale the 4 story waterfall. The scale is pretty difficult to measure in the photo, but I reluctantly give in and let them be kids (and we didn't even sign a waiver). 

Luckily I find a short route back to the main road -- as going back the way we came seems like a roll of the dice. Eve grabs the car keys from Grandpa D and the two kids and I sprint ahead up a very steep climb to the top (it's a great calf and glute workout for sure). We decide it's best to bring the transportation back to the bottom of the mountain pass to pick up two weary travelers. On the way, we get some great views of Blyde River Canyon. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 5 - Sanbonani Resort and Chill

Image
They kind of hate each other right now, so I'm posting this photo lol There isn't much to report on; the kids and I slept in and we enjoyed the amenities of the resort today.  We have our own kitchenette, so we prepare the majority of our food from supplies we buy at the grocery store located just 3 miles down the road. ( we can never seem to remember everything though ) We eat sandwiches so often that Eve is sick of them. She wants to eat in the resort's restaurant today, so I promise her lunch by the pool.  So at 11am, we lazily meander up to the main reception area, discussing our game plan: order lunch, eat, and swim. The pool is near reception, along with other activities like billiards and putt putt golf. Some of us skipped a large breakfast with the thought of eating an early lunch. As we approach the restaurant, we see the doors are closed, lights are off.  "It's okay," I comfort the two kids, "they said something about serving lunc...
Read more

Day 9 - A Big Oops, The "zoo" at Alzu, Johannesburg

Image
Packing for vacation equates to: What exactly do I need?  How much do I bring? Though you might have some anxiety in making sure you have all the right supplies, it's still exciting -- especially when it's some place you've never visited. Packing to return is a completely different experience.  7:00am  With quite a few days in the sweltering heat, we've accrued an extensive amount of stinky clothing. David and Cathy suggested we bring a folded duffel bag to throw all of our soiled, stinky safari clothes. I fill the entire duffel bag until it overflows. Packing for our return flight turns into stuffing all of our dirty clothes into a large suitcase and a duffel bag...and then some. The good news is that, even with all of the excess dirt, our bags are actually lighter going home because we ate most of the snacks we brought with us.   9:00am Suitcases fill the front entry of our little chalet and what remains of our snacks and kitchen supplies sit on ...
Read more

Day 3 - Kruger Park - Giraffes, Elephants, and Zebras OH MY!

Image
After much deliberation and many rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Landon decides to sleep on the couch in the living room and Eve and I take the twin beds in our hotel. However, at 2am in the morning -- Landon emerges from the living room in tears; he can't sleep and wants allergy medicine.  His sister kindly swaps with him (sweet girl). Thus, our early morning start begins before the alarm clock. 4:45am My alarm sounds and I make my instant Starbucks coffee EXTRA strong this morning. We are attempting to make it to Kruger Safari Park before the sunrise. This is a very active point in the day for the animals we plan on observing.  Kruger National Park is South Africa's largest and most diverse reserves (it is also one of its oldest). It is almost the size of Israel, so there are many vast areas to explore over several days.  Going to Safari is kind of like fishing; you never know what you'll get. So, on little sleep and lots of caffeine, we load into the car for...
Read more