We bought a voucher sometime last year that entitled us an experience at Addo Elephant Back Safaris. Having postponed and postponed we decided to just pick a date and stick to it. 3 weeks ago we decided to go on a Wednesday and so we booked it for today.
All week long I prepared myself so that I wouldn’t have outstanding work that needed to be done today, and it all worked out for a change.
When we got there we were met by one of the rangers. While signing in he told us that they other rangers are out in the bush finding the elephants for us to ride. He explained that after a safari, the elephants are left to roam free until they are needed again, instead of being kept in a camp. I thought this is quite cool, and at the same time was wondering how long will it take to find an elephant in 1000+ hectares. Luckily it was only about 15 minutes before I saw the 3 elephants with 3 rangers on their backs coming around the corner.
Getting on them was quite easy with the platform that they have made especially for this. Once on the elephant you adjust yourself a bit and then you’re off. Slowly, but surely. There is nothing between your ass bone and the elephant’s moving spine besides your pants. We did about a 2km round trip into the bush and back to the reception area. During this trip we got to see Eland, Wilde Bees, Baboons and some other buck. All the way the rangers explain different things about the elephants which I found extremely interesting, but a bit difficult to absorb all this info.
You sit about 3-4 meters in the air, and they reckon these elephants will grow another 0.5 meters. Needless to say, you DON’T want to fall off. No one has ever fallen off though, so don’t let that put you off.
When you get off, your ass is numb and a little bruised. Not complaining though, just making an observation!
They then showed us how the elephants kneel down. It’s interesting seeing this huge creature acting like a little dog.
A few other incidents as well where you can see the elephant just wants to play.
From here we walked with them to their watering whole, where we were able to feed them treats before saying farewell.
After a nice lunch prepared by lodge, we left to go back to reality.
The staff at the reserve are definitely well trained and I believe a lot of other places can learn from them about customer service.
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