I know I'm a hopeless Africa-phile. I was glancing at the newspaper to see what was on TV and saw "American Chopper - the boys visit South Africa".

Now, American Chopper is one of those reality shows, about some men who build motorcycles. I care about motorcycles about as much as I care about getting poked in the eye with a stick, but "visit South Africa" got me! I turned it on, and sat through a bunch of stuff about some sort of motorcycle rally in Pretoria, but then got to see "the boys" visit The Elephant Sanctuary, at Hartebeespoort. The place looked entrancing - guests get close up with elephants and can walk with them, and ride them too, I think, while learning about them.

I looked the place up on the web, with an eye to visiting it on my upcoming trip in April. Does anyone know more about it?

Dear Celia

The elephant sanctuary is great, it has been there for about 5 years and you can select the package you would like, breakfast or lunch and you can enjoy it in the proximity of these great animals. It is well worth a visit, if you combine that with De Wildt it is a wonderful day!

Thanks, Doogle! I have e-mailed them, but haven't got a reply yet.

There are quite a few of these elephant sanctuaries around SA. If you are thinking of doing a Garden Route tour (and I would if I were you) then this would probably be the best place to visit one as you will be able to include it as part of a days activities.

Hi Celia,

I'm overnighting at De Wildt and going to the Elephant Sanctuary on the way back to JNB in July. A visit to the sanctuary is promoted on the De Wildt website.

This company arranges transport to both places http://kingcheetahtours.co.za/Home.htm and there is a link to the elephant sanctuary from their home page.

Cheers,


Pol.

We're booked for this coming Monday at the Elephant Sanctuary at Hartebeesport! We're not doing the Garden Route this time; we're spending most of the time in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. We've been to the DeWildt cheetah place -- a great experiance!

We leave the US Friday morning, spend Friday night and Saturday in London, then leave there (from Heathrow Terminal 5) Sunday night, arriving in Jo'burg Sunday morning. I'm blissfully assuming that our luggage will go with us from Terminal 5, but I'm also prudently packing my carry-on pretty full.

How did I miss this post? Celia, what was your experience like? If I only had one extra day....

Does anyone know of an elephant sanctuary that can be done as a day trip from Cape Town?

Carla, it was delightful! We were late for our tour because there was a truck stuck in a tunnel and we had to take a detour; but we joined the tour, about 15 people, in progress. The guide was very informative and the guide and all the trainers were very good with us humans, as well as with the elephants. They had 3 young elephants for us to interact with -- we touched them, looked at their feet and tails and ears, and some people (not me!) got "kissed" by them, with their trunks. Then we all walked with them, holding on to trunks. After this, we got a sort of scientific talk about ellie physiology and behavior. Then those of us who wanted (turned out to be only Jim and I) rode the elephants! What a fun thing! The rider sits behind the trainer and holds on around his waist. The elephants just walked around a big circular area. The motion is side-to-side, not like riding a horse at all.

The guide and a couple of the trainers took pictures of us the whole time.

During the three week trip we took over 500 pictures and we are still going through them trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. We when get that done, I'll try to post some here.

Oh, I forgot to say that the lunch was delicious too.

Im so pleased to hear the Sanctuary is so good. We've tried to book for April next year, but it's too early of course.
And we'll go from our overnight stay at De Wildt as well.
I just can't wait, what an awesome experience to be able to walk "hand in trunk" with them.
Treepol, have a sensational time, whoops that's stupid, of course you will, I look forward to your return report.
I've got a friend from "Slowbart" coming with me next year.

If I could have one more day in South Africa to go here! I even called the airlines to see about changing my flight with no luck. So I will just have to put it on the itinerary for next time.