A hut we found on the way to the orphanage. There was a huge wheat field behind it and there was a modern pivot system and combine harvesting the wheat. Pretty amazing!
The entrance to the orphanage. It is a non-government organization which runs pretty much on donations. It was pretty amazing what they have done!
The baby elephants are orphans because their mothers have been killed by poachers for their ivory tusks. In 1979 there were three million elephants and last year alone, 40,000 were poached, leaving about a half million. It's sort of sad. One baby was rescued from a swimming pool. Baby elephants don't know how to use their trunks until about a year old. This baby was trying to get a drink from the pool using its mouth and lost its balance and fell in. Luckily he was rescued.
We were standing in an observation tower when the elephants walked around us to go get their bottles of milk. We were told to watch closely because the milk would be gone in less than 30 seconds....and that's the way it turned out. They ran to their trainer who had the bottles, curled their trunks around the bottles and fed themselves. It was pretty cute to watch.
The elephants are kept at the orphanage until they are about 10 and then are returned to the national parks in Africa
After that they played in the mud, sucking mud up their trunks and then showering themselves with the lovely red mud. It looked sort of fun.
Green bushes were provided hanging from the trees. There wasn't much green left in the area where they feed, so some had to be brought it. It's the dry season now and the bush is really brown.
They were sharing for a little bit, and then one decided he wanted the leafy green stuff!
They tussled over it a bit....
And one ended up with most of the greens!
The observation person said they will play for awhile and then the leader gets tired of being challenged and gets serious about telling the youngsters to knock it off!
Elephant Trivia
The trunk of an elephant is about 7 feet long and can hold up to 3.5 gallons of water.
Gestation time is 22 months.
The trunk has 40,000 muscles. Humans have 639 muscles.
Elephants can't run because they have to keep two feet on the ground at all times.
Elephants have 6 toes.
It was an interesting outing.
We drove back farther into the brush and found this beautiful resort. The purple tree is a Jackaranda Tree. It blooms during the driest part of the year, then drops its petals and seeds just before the rainy season so the water can nourish the seeds and start new plants. The red is the next tree to come out and is called a Flamboyant Tree. Then the white flowering trees blossom. It is really beautiful and not what I expected to find in Africa.
The resort was very nice.
The food was amazing....and quite cheap. Alan had talapia and rice, I had my first hamburger (which was very good), Elder Bodily had seafood pasta and Sister Bodily had 2 small steaks. He and I had drinks and the total bill was less than $50. And the food was excellent!
There was even a very nice swimming pool, with a rhino and a hippo (not real, of course), at the side.
While we were eating, we could see see monkeys playing in the near distance and some antelope as well. Before we left, the monkeys had come up on the paths of the hotel huts and we got a pretty good look. Alan got this picture of the two monkeys playing in the trees.
As we were driving on the dirt road away from the resort, I turned to say something to Alan and saw this warthog standing in the bush pretty close to the truck. It took a second to get the cameras out, but we were able to get this picture of this not-so-handsome creature. Pumba, from the Lion King seemed much more friendly and much cuter than this guy!
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