October 12

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Safari Time!

Posted by on October 12, 2017 in Africa, CHAI, PULSE 2017 | 12 Comments

“Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.” — Dr. Seuss

A couple of weeks ago I took a few days off and went on a safari in Kruger National Park in South Africa.  Then, on my actual birthday, I spent it brushing down, feeding and interacting with elephants in the Hazeyview Elephant Sanctuary.  I am so blessed to have the opportunity to do these amazing things, and I really need to thank the PULSE team for allowing me to have this unbelievable experience.  Thank you so much, this has been such an amazing and life changing experience that I will treasure always.

Please enjoy the pictures.

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These next pictures were taken on my birthday in the Elephant Sanctuary in Hazeyview.  Here I got to interact with Kasper and Kitso.  There is an issue with Elephant over population in South Africa.  Prior to the 1980’s elephants were hunted in order to keep their numbers down.

Kasper (the elephant you see me with) was born in 1986.  By that time elephant hunting was technically no longer allowed, though poaching does continue even today.  When Kasper was a baby he and two of his brothers were sold to a family in Namibia.  All was fine until the elephants entered their teenage years and started wreaking havoc.  I’m sure parents with teenagers can relate…

The family who owned the elephants shot one of Kasper’s brothers in the head, electrocuted his other brother to death, and decided to create a hunt for Kasper in which hunters could pay for the privilege of being the ones to hunt and kill him.  Thankfully, the sanctuary found out about this and bought Kasper instead.

Both Kasper and Kitso will be released back into the wild.  The sanctuary is just working on finding a location that can support an influx of elephants.  In the meantime, I had the amazing privilege of interacting with these magnificent animals for a day.

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Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

My next blog will feature pictures from my Cape Town/Namibia trip.

Until next time 🙂