Travelling to South Africa isn’t so exotic for us these days as we need to go there to see family and friends, however this time I prepared a different trip. We were to go see the Elephant Sanctuary near Hartbeespoortdam (about an hour out of Johannesburg).

The sanctuary provides a safe haven for elephants that have lost their parents, been abandoned (eg. circus animals) or have been injured in their youth.

Entrance includes a tour which describes the evolution of elephants, how they differ in different parts of the world (mainly Asian elephants) and provides an opportunity to touch and feed the animals.

The elephants are very well behaved and seem to enjoy being with human beings, probably not a good thing for the long term but does provide a good experience overall.

 

The prices were a little steep for South African standards but overall having seen how the elephants are maintained, the tour and the complex it was worth the cash. Izaskun even managed to ride an elephant, which hopefully made up for not riding one in India. 

The next trip we drove to the Sterkfontein caves which are part of the ‘Cradle of Humankind’ which you will have to read on the next blog post.