Walking With Elephants

The Elephant nature park was founded back in 1995 by a truly inspirational woman named Lek. She has given many abused and injured elephants a sanctuary that they can call home. 

Elephants in various trades are worked endlessly due to tourism or illegal trades, which from what we have seen can cause them serious injury. 

You are collected from your hotel in a minibus between 8-9am, this is where you will meet your tour guide and your group.

On route to the park you will watch an informational video, which explains the dos and don'ts when visiting these wild animals. For those with an eagle eye you will also notice it's hosted by the guy who plays Lou in neighbours, which made us chuckle.

You will also watch an elephant documentary which will keep everyone entertained on the 1 hour drive north to the park. 

There is a toilet break half way at services allowing you to get cash out if needed.

On arrival your tour guide will lead you to the feeding walkway where you can feed your designated elephant.

This, for both of us, was just incredible. Watching these gentle giants walk over to us was a sight we will never forget. 

Our elephant was beautiful. With her small floppy ears and incredible markings she really was an amazing sight. However hearing her back story made our hearts sink. 

This wonderful creature was blind. This was due to her previous owner demanding she worked as a logger. One day she refused, so he brutally stabbed her in both eyes and used her disability against her by only feeding her when she worked. 

Having heard of her traumatic story it made the experience all the more incredible. To guide an elephants trunk to her food and seeing her so happy was just awesome. 

After the huge basket of food had been devoured by your elephant and everyone had had a chance to feed her we were taken down into the feeding ground.

This is where your tour of the park will begin. 

Water is advised for this as there is quite a lot of walking involved, but it's very much at a slow pace to allow you to enjoy every moment, but you are directly in the sun! 

As we were walking around we got to meet some other elephants in which we were allowed to slowly approach and were able to make contact with. 

Helpful Advice 

▪️Never block an elephants path when it's walking 

▪️Never stand directly behind an elephant unless you want a good kicking 

▪️Always be gentle. These creatures are very sensitive and know a good person when they see one. Sounds odd and very Mother Earth like but it's true. Elephants have the most incredible eyes that seem to look straight into your soul. So be respectful of their space. If they want your attention they will let know. 

This is a great time to take pictures, but again be careful. No flash photography or loud noises.

The elephants here are beautiful creatures and most have had a life of hardship due to their background of "tourist abuse", such as elephant riding, logging and street begging.

You will see many of the elephants here have injuries, such as broken and healed legs, hips and some even backs. So be patient, already naturally slow, these injuries don't help with their speed.

There are 30-40 elephants at this park. Ages range from a year right up to their 80s.

You will see some baby elephants here, they may look cute, but they are not as calm as their elders. One of the boys was quite the little thug, running at tourists who were a little too close for comfort. So be careful. 

After your walk you will have an hours lunch at 11.30. 

This will consist of a vegetarian buffet and refreshments. Everything from 4 different types of noodles to vegetable curry which were delicious. However if this doesn't take your fancy there is a little tuck shop where you can purchase cold soft drinks, beer, crisps and biscuits. 

After lunch you will have the opportunity to bathe the elephants.

When walking down to the river you will be handed your bucket. This is were it gets really hands on so get in there and get involved! 

Elephants love a good bath so don't be afraid to fill those buckets.

The water is dirty but who cares, if needs be take some spares with you. 

If you have a go pro this is definitely the ideal time for the waterproof case.

As an extra treat we also saw a herd of water buffalo taking a bath, but we wouldn't recommend trying to scrub their backs. 

Having spent a good 30 minutes at the river we were then led back to the viewing point. It was here we were able to see a small herd of Nellies, including the 2 youngest elephants at the park. Here they were throwing mud over one an other to coat themselves in their natural sun lotion. 

We were able to get quite close however, the calves started chasing a couple of the tourists here and even gave one a bump as he got a little too close and didn't feel the need to run like everyone else. Silly mistake. Even though he tried to laugh it off, you could clearly see it hurt. 

At this wonderful park they also provide a dog and cat shelter. You will probably meet many of these near the dining areas. They do provide a dog adoption service in which you could have an animal transhipped home. 

We met some beautiful animals and would love to give them a home...if we had one. Don't know how Figaro (our cat) would feel about this though. 

To sum it up, this place is extraordinary! 

Not only do they rescue, treat and care for all these beautiful tortured animals, they help give them the life they should have always had. 

Open spaces to roam, fresh food to eat and the love and friendship from other elephants in a herd. 

This place, to us, was amazing. It makes you reevaluate every poster, every advert and every tourist guide you have come across promoting elephant rides! 

Top Tips 

▪️Support this great cause! Yes it's a little pricy, but the experience you get, and the help you are providing gives these animals a better life! It is well worth the cost. 

▪️Water is provided at the park, but take some extra money with you just incase you been rehydrating after the walk. 

▪️Monday is the day all the new volunteers show up so it is busier than normal. It's busy all week but to avoid the bigger crowds pick a different day. 

▪️If you want to give a dog a loving home contact Sabrina at the Elephant Nature Park. She will help you out with all the requirements needed to give a lovely doggy a new home. 

▪️We strongly urge you not to give in to the 'thrill' of elephant riding at other tourist destinations. Yes it may give you a lot of 'likes' on your Instagram or Facebook page, but the pain and suffering that is being put on these gentle creatures is not only unnecessary, but also cruel. 

There are only around 1,500 wild Asian Elephants left in the wild. Let's not see this number diminish anymore due to capturing and forcing tourist work upon them. 

▪️Be sure to go check out both of our Instagram accounts @suzeandthebeard and @beardyandsuzetravel