A new beginning is always promising, especially when it involves finding a new home for a group of elephants.
Thanks to a professional team, a year of preparation, international funding, and four weeks of intensive back-breaking journeys, the 26 elephants from Mount Etjo Safari Lodge have found themselves in the lush Cuatir Nature Reserve in south-eastern Angola , the area hadn't seen elephants for 50 years due to the ravages of the civil war and indiscriminate poaching.
Some of Mount Etjo's giraffes and kudus had previously been relocated to Cuatir Nature Reserve in Angola, a haven of mopane forest and floodplains, and they asked owner Stephan van Wyk if he was interested in offering a home to the small family group of elephants. They would then have to make the 100km trip through the Angolan countryside during the night before crossing the Cubango River in the early morning to negotiate the last 40km of soft sand in daylight.
They were lifted by crane and woke up peacefully in the wake-up crates before walking into the trucks for the journey to the border. They couldn't go on. They took a three-hour break in the early hours and the next morning managed the last stretch to offload the elephants. When they got back to Mount Etjo Lodge, there was no time to waste as they had to source a 6x6 truck in a few days to be able to make the next trip with the elephants on their own.
They returned to prep for the second capture and trip, doing some more last-minute repairs. While the recovery trip was underway, the rest of the team had been busy building a second set of tracks. Everybody stopped what they were doing, sat next to the offloading ramps and watched the incredible heartwarming reunion. They all had tears streaming down their faces.
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