80 minute drive from OR Tambo Airport. Malaria free area.

The Elephant Sanctuary Hartbeespoort Dam is an elephant sanctuary providing a safe haven and “halfway house” for African elephants. It provides fully guided interactive elephant educational programs covering elephant habits, dynamics, behavior and anatomy. The main focus of The Elephant Sanctuary is to educate visitors about all aspects of elephants and elephant husbandry, with the vision to release elephants into an environment where they can be more independent.

Visitors have the opportunity to touch, feed, walk trunk-in-hand, and to experience short elephant-back rides conducted under professional supervision with experienced guides.

The Elephant Sanctuary at Hartbeespoort Dam lies in a malaria-free area. It is surrounded by natural indigenous bush and is home to impala, klipspringer, baboons, porcupine, caracal, leopard, a host of other small mammals, 350 bird species and, of course, four magnificent African Elephants:-

Amarula

Male. Amarula is the oldest bull at the sanctuary in Hartebeestpoort dam. He spent most of his life in different zoo’s in South Africa and had very little direct contact with people before arriving at the sanctuary. He moved from the Bloemfontein zoo to the sanctuary in 2008.

Khumba

Female – born 1994. Khumba is the matriarch at the sanctuary and she loves all the attention she gets from the guests and the handlers. She is the “mother” of the herd and will always keep an protective eye over the rest.

Masadi

Female – born 1994 Masadi is a little bit bigger than other 15 year old elephants. Masadi is “second in command” and helps maintain the family structure. She loves interaction with the other elephants and has a much louder trumpet than usual. She also loves hearing her own voice, so if there are loud trumpeting coming from the enclosures you can be sure it is Masadi “singing”.

Temba

Female – born in 2000 Temba is the “baby” of the herd and she loves the fact that all the other elephants always look after her and smother her with love and attention. Temba is very fond of children and thrive on all the attention she gets from them. The Elephant Sanctuary provides a “halfway house” for young African elephants in need of a temporary home. It is the only operation in South Africa that provides for elephants in this way. It is the vision of the centre to release all the elephants into an environment where they can be more independent once they are older.

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Tours & Prices 2024

Half Day

Elephant Sanctuary Tour (3 hours) – ELEP03

3 Tours Daily- Interaction with Elephants
9:00am 10:00am 2:00pm
R 2,650-00 per person sharing.
R 3,200-00 single person.
Optional Extra
Elephant Ride

9:00am 10:00am 2:00pm
R 2,850-00 per person sharing.
R 4,550-00 single person. Lunch – R 350.00 per person.
Inclusive of tour cost: Pick-up and drop-off, guiding, entrance fees.

(Prices are subject to change without prior notice)

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