Point and Shoot: Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary

We only had a couple of days back at Muhaka before we were off again to Mwaluganje, the elephant sanctuary. Thought it might be a good idea to get some washing done in town before we moved away from civilisation again. So a group of us decided to take some bikes to the laundry matt as they were the cheapest way of getting around, and the most fun.

Bikes we used to get to the laundry, outside Muhaka camp

Morning came and it was time for us to begin the 3 hour drive to the sanctuary. We said our goodbyes to the 3 monthers and loaded onto the truck. Everywhere you go in Africa, you cannot take your eyes off the views. The scenery is so beautiful. Even in the cities and slums there is so much going on its hard to focus on one thing for more than a couple of seconds.

The road to Mwaluganje camp, an hour truck drive to the nearest paved road

Some of the first elephants we saw at the sanctuary, and the first of the big five I had ever seen in the wild

The front door of a villager outside the Sanctuary. Ironic

Villager getting water from a tap outside her house

For one of the projects we were asked to carry out a survey around the houses in the village outside the sanctuary. There were 15 questions to ask on the topic of how they felt about the elephants and sanctuary being there and how it had changed there way of life. Camp Kenya, along with the sanctuary was helping to increase the villagers standard of living by giving them more of a voice. Around 90% where unhappy that the Sanctuary was there and it had changed there way of life, for the worse. A lot of them had had land inside the sanctuary before it was established. They had been given a small sum of money and some land outside of it. By small I mean insulting. For every acre of land they had in the sanctuary, they were given 100 chillings each year. Thats only 80p, so no wonder they hated the elephants. On top of their land being stolen, the land given to them bordered the sanctuary, which only had a fence keeping the elephants from getting out. It was electric but not enough to keep the elephants away, and for the 36 km of fencing, only 2 guards patrolled with dart rifles. When we asked why they don't have a higher voltage or more security, they replied with the moto of Africa, 'The government does not have enough money'.