Elephant Back Safari, Zambia

After another restful sleep this day started out with an unexpected bang. My alarm on my watch, although it went off every other morning, failed to go off this morning, or I just didn’t hear it, when I needed to get up at 5:30 am for my Elephant Back Safari. As I was being picked up at 6:45 am, I quickly got dressed, cleaned up, grabbed my camera battery and ran out the door as I wished Lis a great time on her rafting adventure.

13 of us took a short bus ride to the park where we were met by Gerald, our guide for the day. Upon arrival, there was a tea set up for us and as we were welcomed we briefed on the do’s and don’ts of elephant riding. At the same time, gracefully the elephants walked just past us as we were seated to the open area where they lined up and we were all introduced. After pairing up with another member of the group it was agreed that Emily and I would ride Madina, a male elephant with a reputation for dancing off on his own.

There are currently 9 elephants in the park, some are married and with children. It is very interesting to hear about the personalities of the elephants and I was happy learn that even though they are so often entertaining us with these most enjoyable rides they too are always walked to the wild so that they can interact with each other and live as elephants should do.

Getting on the elephant was something that I was picturing in my mind to be quite funny. Fortunately they simplify this step for us with a platform that we get on to be a level with the elephant which makes it much easier then expected. Once comfortably sat (at the beginning anyway) and Madina begins to move you realize quite quickly why it is so important to hold on as we were told in the briefing because as he wrapped his trunk around a branch and with great force moves briskly from side to side to break it away you could easily be thrown right off.
We continued our stroll and stopped by the river to pose for a shot and it was impressive to see the elephants themselves posing to make the shots the best they could be for all of us. Once our walk was over we had the opportunity to feed the elephants and pet them and then too quickly it was time to say good bye.