Deane's 2009 Motorcycle Trip
South Africa
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Deane's 2009 Motorcycle Trip South Africa |
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Nov 19, - Knysna Rest Day 13 - 60Km (37 Miles) |
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Today is a rest day, at the town of Knynsa, a seaside place for resorts. However, I do have something special scheduled this afternoon; an Elephant ride!! I’m
looking forward to that, since it was one of the major things I wanted to
do. Well, I did get to go on the Elephant ride, and was it ever fun!! Here's my elephant, Namib, named for his country of birth, Namibia, from which he was brought to this elephant reserve about 5 years ago, and his handler Amhed has been training him. Namib is 23 years old, and pretty good to handle.
And here's my elephant and I. (Good thing I had on my yellow and black riding coat, so I'm easy to identify.) The overall ride was about 25-30 minutes, and I got to feel how an elephant rocks from side-to-side as well as makes forward motion. Namib was kind of hard to get on, because of his rocking from side to side at the mounting platform. However, we did it and Amhed gave me a good ride, and gave me some insight about handling elephants. You can see that he is always reaching back with his trunk to get food.
--- And more food.
And among the other 10 or so elephants, there were many ages, from about 8 months to the oldest one, 22. Here is the one I liked best - he is so cute!
Our guides told us not to lean down or get down to our knees. That lets the little one know you want to play, and he head-butts hard. Then his mother will really slap you with her trunk, thinking you mean some harm to her little one. What Fun!!!! |
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