Wild Horizons Elephant Back Safaris

“The elephant moved softly through the bush, stopping occasionally to break branches off the low mopani trees which it chewed, like overgrown sticks of biltong, as it walked. The herd moved ahead of it and behind it, staying in contact with a series of low rumbles, never out of sight, as the early morning sun began its steady, unrelenting climb. And on their backs, the human tourists wondered, excitedly, at the grace of their huge carriers, and their calm and willing servitude. This is an elephant-back safari.” Sharon Van Wyk, excerpt from her article “Back to Front” 

More Information:-
Elephant Back Safaris – Victoria Falls 

Pilanesberg Elephant Back Safaris (South Africa) 

Our Elephant Back Safaris Mission Statement 

Orphaned Elephants 

The Wild Horizons Trust

Elephant News, The Rumble in the Jungle – A GIANT move!

Finally the day came ... after almost two years from inception, we were able to welcome our elephant herd to their new home - Sunday the 20th of July 2008!

For the last few months Gavin Best had been preparing the elephant herd for the day they would walk 20 kilometers to their new home in the Wild Horizons Wildlife Sanctuary and Orphanage concession in the Victoria Falls National Park.

The two herds were moved a week apart on Sunday the 13th and 20th July. The day of the first move, we were all up early and ready to go. Jake, Janet and Mapfumo, Emily and Izibulo, Coco and Jack set off at 6.30 a.m. for the 20km journey. All went well until we reached the bottom of the hill, about 2km from camp when suddenly Janet decided she was not going anywhere. Something seemed to be unsettling her and although she never tried to go back to camp she just milled around as if wondering exactly what was going on, clearly she sensed today was different to the daily training walks. We sat back and let her make her own decision and after about 20 minutes when Jake set off up the road, she happily followed him obviously trusting his decision that they would be fine. It was a lovely sight with the little herd wandering gently along, feeding from any trees alongside the road and the little Mapfumo, only two and a half months old, racing along to keep up - when he needed a drink from Mum, out would come a huge bellow and we all stopped and relaxed whilst he re-hydrated.

The herd moved far slower than we had anticipated but..... who was worried? The day was part of a usual beautiful Zimbabwean winter. The glowing red sunrise was turning into a mild sunny day and the still green, luscious trees along the route provided plenty for the elephants to feed on. The only slight problem came when the train crept up behind us, tooted his whistle to say Good Morning, and Big Jack almost jumped out of his great grey skin, as did we all! Jack took off into the bush but only for a few hundred yards when his groom's voice calmed him down, and he realised he was the only one out of the entire herd to have fled!!

At the Nakavango turn off we left the road and headed into the bush going cross country towards their new home, passing the Masuie Lodge. Climbing the last ridge to the main Victoria Falls - Bulawayo road the traffic was stopped for the Ellies to cross the main road and enter through the green gate into their new premises. Four and a half hours later and our first herd were safe and calm and content in their new home.

Our second herd moved on the 20th July and the walk went smoother and even faster than the first. Miz Ele was the perfect matriarch and led the way proudly, enticing everyone along and patiently holding up the herd when little Lulu and Tembi wanted refreshments from their Mums. The two little ones played all the time until about halfway when they realised that this was no training walk and clearly there was still some distance to cover. This walk was not hampered by trains - all simply looked and kept on going when the train trundled past. Onwards we strolled - Miz Ele rumbled and talked a lot and it was perhaps the lion tracks we had followed all the way from the Ele camp that was keeping her alert and protective. Another wonderful walk with these amazing animals - it really is something to be remembered forever - wandering through the bush with large and little elephant that rumble along, snapping branches, munching away and touching each other to make sure all are following and Miz Ele keeping everyone in line. Crossing the main road was easily done and although Miz Ele seemed quite perturbed about something we presumed it was simply the journey and the new area around her… little did we know! Through the gate, down the new road and there were the stables that had been worked on for 18 hours a day for the last few days and were now ready for the new herd. Lots of trumpeting and rumbling erupted when Miz Ele's herd recognised the smell of their friends, who had arrived earlier last week. The walk took only three hours and we were so very proud of our two herds who had not let us down in the march to their new home.

The move did not go without some sadness. A few days prior to the walk we lost our wonderful little orphan Chizi who was injured by Lundi and ultimately succumbed to the injuries. Another heartbreak was poor Mashaba, our 12 year old whom we had rescued from a snare. We were left with no choice but to euthanize him as his muscles began to atrophy due to a wound which would not heal. After 8 years of good life, he just began struggling to keep up and the pain became more noticeable - it was a traumatic moment to say good bye to such a brave and wonderfully natured elephant but we had to let him go whilst he still had dignity and life in him.

Damiano, one of the oldest Bulls had started showing more and more interest in spending time in the wild. It was decided that we would fit him with a satellite collar and together with the NGO “elephants without frontiers”, release him into the wild and monitor his movements via the satellite collar. Within the first three days he had moved 15 km to the Kazuma Pan National park. We will monitor Damiano’s movements and keep a regular update on the Wild Horizons website.

The MOST interesting part of the move is that when we had all just settled into the new Wallow, we received a message that the Gate guard had just let a big elephant in through the gate, as "he thought Mr Best had left an elephant behind"!!! The story is .........A huge wild bull had been following our herd around for the last three weeks and we presumed one of the girls was perhaps in season. He was named TRANSFORMER (…another story to be told) and we of course thought he would go wandering off into the bush once we left. This was not to be - he had watched the departure in the morning from the sidelines, as he normally does during training sessions, and obviously thought "where do they think they are going without me?" And set off behind us, unbeknown to us, following in the distance for the entire 20km! He arrived at the gate about an hour after us and the guard, assuming we had left an elephant behind, opened the gate and watched, from within a meter, as the massive Wild bull sauntered through the gate as if he was part of our herd. It soon became clear that Miz Ele was in season and it was she, he was after. TRANSFORMER stayed for 3 days, during which time he was seen mating with Miz Ele, to our absolute joy. We are not certain whether she is pregnant, but are holding thumbs for her - she misses Chizi desperately and perhaps this is her way of getting over it.

So - the lucky and even more interesting side of the story is that TRANSFORMER left the Sanctuary once he had done his bit to increase our herd and headed into the distance - we returned only find that he and Damiano have teamed up with four younger bulls and here's to a good future for them and happy roaming of the wilds of Zimbabwe - Be big and brave, Damiano - it is a harsh world out there but you wanted your freedom - enjoy it!

So.... with many memories, happy and sad, we have left our old elephant lives to settle into a new one where we try to look forward and not back.