The first time I visited Zambia I was amazed to see Elephants eating trees on the side of the road as you often drive through National Parks to get to the cities.
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When you travel in Zambia the only tarred roads out of Lusaka are in the form of a cross. You have the Great North, South, East and West roads.
We took the Great West road towards Mongu and Kalabo which are located in Barotseland.
While traveling on the Great West Road, you pass through Kafue National Park. That is where we saw the Elephants at the side of road and I recorded the video on our home page. You have to be very careful when approaching Elephants at the side of the road. If they start walking towards you and you see their ears flapping or full out and open. RUN! That is a sign that they will charge.
Don’t get me wrong! Elephants are beautiful, graceful calm beings, but they will protect themselves and their young.
While I was in Zambia I saw many Elephants. My first opportunity was at Chaminuka, a private Game Park just outside Lusaka.
We went there for a two night stay and had a morning and evening safari, visited their cheese factory and were able to walk with their Elephants.
The best part was petting Duff. He is an African Elephant, one of three on the property. The female was Kachele and the baby Taonga.
Elephants will eat 250-650 lbs of food per day so the Elephants at Chaminuka have a keeper who walks with them all day to make sure they don’t eat all of the trees in one area. The Elephants are then put in a coral in the evenings.
This is what gave me the idea of growing the trees that Elephants like and selling them to National & Private Game Parks. Even the President of Zambia, Michael Sata has said he will help to reforest Zambia.
By starting to grow them now SEEDS will hopefully produce enough trees to sustain many populations of Elephants in years to come.
Elephants & Chili peppers don’t mix!
Another vegetable SEEDS will grow to sell is chili peppers. If you surround your garden with chili peppers you won’t have any stray Elephants coming out of the game parks to steal from your garden. They don’t like the HOT in the peppers and will not step over it to get your vegetables.
I heard from our driver Max on our first visit that if an Elephant keeps raiding village gardens they will shoot the Elephant.
I want to give the people a way to live in peace with these majestic animals!
Proceeds from the sale of trees at our resource garden in Mongu help support elephants.
