June 14 – Horseback Riding and Elephants

Today we went horseback trail riding with an elephant encounter! We had an hour long horse trail ride. Chandler rode a horse for the first time in his life, and he did pretty well for a semi-technical trail. 

 Then we got to the elephant place and were awed. They had six elephants that they had saved from overpopulated private reserves. Five of them were a bit younger, and one huge older one was from Kruger Park called Tembo.

The handlers had the elephants put on a cool show for us just by listening to verbal commands. They train them on a command reward basis, not by poking them with sharp sticks like they do for Asian elephants. They taught us all about the elephants’ anatomy, diet, behavior, etc. We learned a lot of interesting things such as how their ears serve as a cooling system by having blood pumped through them, how they have hormone secretion holes above their eyes that display their emotion, and how their molars determine their lifespan. We all got to take turns feeding one of them, touching them as they lay down, and standing between their front legs.

Then we got to ride them! Chandler, Kat and I got to ride the biggest one, Tembo! It felt so wonky with our legs spread so far! And we were so high up off the ground! Then we rode the horses back. 

 In the afternoon we explored the Panorama route by Blyde River Canyon, stopped at God’s Window, Berlin Falls, Bourke’s Potholes, and the Three Rondavels, the last of which was my favorite. The views of the canyon were stunning.

We had another authentic South African dinner of venison stew with pap (smooth corn meal, South African staple) and samb (a chunkier sweet corn meal). A Dutch guy sleeping in the same hostel room as us joined us for dinner. We are staying in Graskop for two nights.