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| Sumatra elephants |
We slow down as we arrive in the park. There is a sign reading: Elephants crossing. As you walk through the doors of the museum, you will discover a myriad of interesting exhibits, from ivory carvings to tusks to a life-size mammoth replica purchased and brought from an ice age exhibition in the United States. UU elephants are the main attraction here. We are greeted by a huge 30-year-old Sumatran elephant skeleton in the lobby. Large billboards scream about atrocities against elephants and images of dead elephant bodies. For what? By greed certainly not out of necessity.
Highly educated elephants
Because of my experience with Pogli I am not sure if I would like to meet elephants, but Ivan assures me that his elephants are very docile, educated and civilized. After seeing uncivilized elephants, I'm not convinced, but quickly change my mind.
Elephants, who can paint, calculate and play basketball, are civilized, if not a little bit sighted. An elephant paints with a brush on the trunk and then asks for different colors, although he is almost blind. Three elephants lined up on a raised platform parade, the tail rested on the other's torso and walked confidently to the podium. Another answers the question at 2 + 1 =?, Choose 3 from the hand of the master of ceremonies. Then he strikes in one fell swoop: He puts the ball in the basketball hoop while his friend hits the ball, but loses the goal. Look, they are not perfect. But it's time to show, and elephants like to be the center of attention.
Create an awareness
My guide, Ketut Nursyarifah, Deputy Park Manager, tells me that the park is designed to provide elephants with a place to learn more about tourists, train tourists and meet elephants.
We crossed a beautiful landscaped garden. Everything is balanced and naturally mixed in the jungle environment. Elephant statues in many shapes, sizes and positions can be found throughout the garden without being conspicuous or exaggerated. The koi continue in the pond and an imported African orchid spreads its gigantic green palms into the sky. In 2004, more than 200 trees were added to the garden, including 30 different palm species and thousands of local and imported orchids.
Steve Irwin - "It's the best"
Steve Irwin, the late "Crocodile Hunter", said, "The best elephant park I've ever seen."
They take me to the landing point where I meet Kade, the mahout. I carried an elephant around his neck and sat on a wooden bench for two. My elephant is called "Ola" or as Kade calls it "Ola Ola, Coca Cola". After a few photos, we took a leisurely 35-minute walk through the lush green jungle park.
Ola is always hungry, Kade says, and as expected, he's starting to walk with his tribe, feel the bushes, tear the grass, and eat all the time. Kade controls him with a wooden stick that he manipulates and touches his right ear. He sits comfortably on Ola's neck, but he tells me to hang up my bag quickly because she can go there and then stop shivering when she sees something tasty.
The park is green and beautiful and Ola enjoys walking with elegance and rhythm. It's like a swing. I look at the quiet environment: It is still early in the morning and the foliage looks fresh and the birds sing. I like to be very high and to look into the jungle.
Sweet house
Kade and I talked about his training as an elephant keeper and his life in the village. He says he likes to work here because it's a great way to make a living. This gives me information about how each elephant drinks 80 liters of water and 250,000 vegetarian foods. They are very powerful animals that can pick the trees very easily.
"How did these elephants arrive in Bali?"
"In big trucks," says Kade. "They had to be calmed down." He shows me the parking lot of the elephants. "Good home, where to eat and shit," he says. Each elephant has its own place where it is chained, when it is not walking, swimming or mating.
waste recycling
We ended the walk in the pool: one of the deepest elephant ponds in Southeast Asia. Ola Ola Coca Cola comes in, has fun. Later it is dismantled and swimming. A ranger removes elephant dung from the basin and sends it to an elephant processing plant in Renon (Denpasar) to make it an organic fertilizer.
I am one of the first pilots of the day and Ola organized a nice and quiet trip. Many tourists come to enjoy the park and ride the elephants. But we are not done yet. I have to officially meet Ola on the floor for more Kodak moments. She puts a garland around my neck and I feed her with fresh coconut bark. Kade wants to boast about his talented friend, brings him to the edge of the pool, kneels down, his trunk stands up and wants to be immortalized again in pictures. It forces me
The park has a treatment plant and a waste disposal system, a brand new, publicly accessible breeding area and an observation area. I go with Ketut and visit the observation area where Debby, the baby, tries to learn to feed on his head. "She was very malnourished and ill, now there is a picture of health," Ketut said. "She is a very naughty girl".
A new opportunity
We go to a restaurant and a bar with a capacity of 200 people, where they offer me a cup of cappuccino. I drink the delicious coffee and enjoy the breathtaking views of the park and the elephants bathing in the water. How happy are these 27 elephants who are being rescued and given a new chance to live.
And such a transformation is the following! What was once degraded paddy fields is today an elephant paradise frequented by international travelers. It is a world class course that is run professionally.
The lunch buffet is rich and well presented. I met the salad bar with its wide selection. Families and children are fun and the staff is very efficient. Everything works like a clock.
I enter the large gift shop, which has many memories of elephants. Too many things to watch. I stay in the restaurant, grab another cappuccino, and look at the information packet Ketut brought me. I would like to meet the responsible person. They tell me that Nigel Mason is in the park watching over the completion of his safari lodge. I wonder who that sweet soul is who has a weakness for the jungle giants.
An Australian adventurer
Nigel is an Australian conservationist: an English-born and educated adventurer who lived in Egypt as a young man. After leaving England at the age of fifteen, he tried everything: picking fruit, cutting wood, hunting kangaroos, and helping build the Sydney-Melbourne railroad. He rubbed his shoulders with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker and Roy Orbison when he worked in the music industry in the late 1960s. Many races later, in 1980, he went to Bali where he met his wife Yani and stayed here.
The couple started Bali Adventure Tours in 1989 with 5-star rafting tours and added new tours, including kayaking on the river, mountain biking, jungle and paddy trekking. All tours offer expert and trained guides and new equipment. In 1996, the safari park with nine elephants was created. Eight more were saved the following year. They traveled six days in a convoy of 10 vehicles traveling thousands of miles on the road and on the sea to reach Bali. Among them, two-year-old Ramona has become an outstanding painter in recent years and has sold some of her paintings at Christie's in New York.
It is not an easy task
It took Nigel almost four years to save more elephants. This time, 10 elephants were rescued, making the family 27 years old. However, this was not an easy task.
"The number of elephants is falling rapidly because of the conflict between humans and elephants," says Nigel. This is a direct consequence of the increasing illegal logging in the forests where they were previously rooted free. will be captured by the forest service and return to the fields "indefinitely without hope in the forest." The camps lack the means to adequately feed or sustain animal health, so animals are condemned to a short life of boredom and poor health These terrible conditions drove Nigel to commit suicide and try to bring the last flock to his park.
Operation Jumbo
Operation Jumbo, a 55-minute documentary by THREEFOLD Films and directed by Australian Brad Cone, describes Nigel's passion and commitment to risking a fortune: each elephant costs around 100 million RP ($ 10,000) per person. Salvation and maybe his own life. to save 10 endangered Sumatran elephants and bring them to their elephant sanctuary in the hills of Bali. The film shows Nigel's struggle with bureaucracy and Bali's current problems for nearly three years. The film vividly shows the Indonesian confusions and how terrorism has caused the massive slowdown in tourism on which he so much supported himself.
The film was recently presented at the Cannes Film Festival by the international television industry Isquo; Beyond 'and was well received by more than 20 networks from more than a dozen countries that wanted to show the film. It is translated into many languages with DVD subtitles and is available for sale in the park's gift shop. The proceeds go to food, medicine and maintenance of captive elephants in the camps of Sumatra.
The new safari lodge
Now, Nigel and his team are putting the finishing touches on Safari Lodge: a first-class accommodation project that will open in June. It offers a full range of rooms, from VIP to Standard, for every budget. "You can ride an elephant from your room," says Nigel. "A first in the world."
Elephant Safari Park has strengthened the company's profile as a leader in adventure tourism and its image as a socially responsible society for the rescue of elephants. The Elefante Foundation receives part of the cost of the park. The ability to protect and enhance the Balinese tropical landscape has also created a positive image for Masons on the island. They have received many brilliant reports from environmental and wildlife organizations praising the park's innovative design and landscaping.
Tormented by memories
Nigel's team is headed by Park Director Dedi Ramlan, a young Acehnese still tormented by his father's childhood memories of killing many elephants along with other angry farmers to protect their lands. Dedi has spent most of his adult life caring for Elephant spent, a passion he considers a reward for his father's atrocities.
Compassion and determination for a good cause have kept Nigel, who turned 63 in April, with a youthful look and heart. All good karma is what surrounds the good soul that has given so much to keep the giants of the Sumatra forests and to give their fate a voice.
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