The Most Magical Sunset in South Africa

When your childhood best friend surprises you with the most magical experience in South Africa. A close up and personal encounter with these gentle giants.  We learnt that this herd was going to be culled in the Kruger Park before they were saved. It was truly a humbling experience being surrounded by these gracious creatures.

The story begins several decades ago in Zimbabwe through our father Rory Hensman. His interest and love for wildlife began on the family farm where as a child he was surrounded by all kinds of animals from dogs and ponies to countless animals (wild and orphaned) and birds. As an adult he had the foresight to convert one of the family's commercial farms into a game reserve where we, his children could grow up to also enjoy wildlife.

In 1988 Rory obtained two young orphaned elephant from the necessary culling operations taking place in the Zambezi valley, with the aim of releasing them onto his game farm. When Jumbo and Miss Ellie arrived Rory realised that they were far too small to be released and so kept the elephants in a boma.

He soon realised that there was a lot more to these animals than he had originally anticipated and understood that they wanted to be a part of the farm's daily life. Within a few weeks of arriving Jumbo and Miss Ellie were following a handler around the farm, responding to their names and listening to basic commands. And so it all began, Jumbo and Miss Ellie joined Hoggles the warthog, Nelson the kudu, Thika the serval, Didi the steenbok and others and became part of the menagerie of orphaned animals that found their way into the Hensman household. In 1992, Rory met and married Lindie in 1993, who rode in on Miss Ellie at their wedding ceremony on the farm.

Rory decided to keep the elephants and as time went on he was given more and more ‘problem’ and orphaned elephant. He was soon confounding the critics by taming and training these animals to willingly do various farm tasks such as rounding up and dipping cattle, checking farm fences and conducting anti-poaching patrols. 

In the early 1990's poaching was already problematic and Rory accepted to conduct anti-poaching operations with National Parks in the Zambezi Valley. The elephants could be used to carry rangers to otherwise inaccessible terrain where they could follow poachers day and night, all year round, using their sense of smell.

In 1994 when the next-door farm was burgled the elephant followed the trail left by the thieves for 4 kilometres. 12 hours after the burglarly they were able to lead the police to where the loot had been stored. The police obtained shoeprints and fingerprints which subsequently lead to arrests.

Soon neighbours began delivering unmanageable elephants from other farms. Our family trained them all and delivered the best-mannered to friends at Victoria Falls to begin an elephant safari camp. 

In 2002 tragedy struck when Rory was forcibly removed by Robert Mugabe from his farms in Zimbabwe along with many other Zimbabwean farmers. Rory moved his family, his handlers and his elephants to Kapama Game Reserve in South Africa to start a new life. In September 2003, an elephant fund called Elephants for Africa Forever (Pty) Ltd (EFAF) was established to assist in research projects. These range from using chill peppers to deter elephants from raiding crops, to elephant contraception and vaccines to help curb bulls in musth.

AWE was opened in 2010. We have had the honour of educating over 15000 guests a year, in the marvels of the African elephant. All of the elephant at EFAF destinations are elephant that were considered ‘problem elephants’ and as such were going to be destroyed. Problem elephant are elephant that over populate and have a negative impact on the environment and other wildlife, or elephant that caused damage to property (Human Elephant Conflict) or to other wildlife. Tembo our largest elephant caused R1 Million worth of damage to a game reserve in six months, he turned over vehicles, killed rhino and buffalo and broke into buildings. Instead of destroying these animals, we have brought them in and tamed them for educational hands-on interactions.

Elephants have been our life since 1988 and we are proud to have the privilege of working with them.