Elephant rehabilitation camp

While on a group safari in Botswana in June 2013, my wife, Sandy, and I stayed in the jungle at Stanley’s Camp, located in the Okavango Delta near the Moremi Game Reserve and operated by Sanctuary Retreats. Intrigued by a brochure in the hotel lobby for a camp that retrains “bad boy” elephants and allows visitors to see the rehabilitated animals up close, we paid $428 each to see the elephants (charged to our closing bill at the camp).

Only guests at one of the two safari camps in the private concession where the camp is located can participate. Our group of six traveled a half hour to the camp, where we were able to hang out with the elephants. Though all of the elephants had killed another animal (and in one case destroyed a village), they were very tame with us, taking our hats off our heads and putting them back on (as is happening to me in the picture), letting us hold their trunks, etc. At lunch, we enjoyed very fine food while the elephants were nearby eating hay. It was a great experience and well worth the money, which went toward giving elephants a second chance.

JIM DELMONTE
Honolulu, HI