1. Elephants live to be over 70 years old and can reproduce from the age of 16. Most females will only have 3 or 4 youngsters throughout her lifetime.
2. Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump.
3. Elephants, just like humans, are either “left or right-handed” preferring one tusk over the other. They use this favoured tusk for digging, stripping, pushing, lifting and so on.
4. Tusks are actually their incisor teeth.
5. An elephant’s trunk has over 50 000 muscles in it – bear in mind a human only has 600 muscles in their whole body! An elephant can actually tell the size, temperature and shape of an object just by inspecting it with their trunk.
6. Their trunk is used mainly to put food and water into their mouths.
7. Elephants are highly sensitive animals and express emotions such as grief, compassion, self-awareness, consideration and playfulness.
8. Elephant’s feet are covered with soft padding. They use their feet to pick up the vibrations of sub-sonic rumblings made by other elephants, up to 20 kilometers away. Often you will find elephants standing dead still with their feet spread and trunk resting on the ground – they are communicating with other elephants in the distance.
9. They are extremely social creatures and if a member of the herd has been away for a while, they will have a whole greeting ceremony by intertwining their trunks.
10. They are able to use their trunks as snorkels; this allows them to swim in deep water.
11. Elephants use their ears to help cool them down. The high number of blood vessels behind their ears work as a cooling system, the warmer it is the more they will flap their ears to keep their body temperature low.
12. Unbelievably, elephants pay homage to the bones of other dead elephants. In a very spiritual ceremony, an entire herd will stop then using their trunks and feet, they touch and feel the bones, then stand still and silent for several minutes until they quietly move on.
Rates are quoted in South African Rand (ZAR) and include VAT. Rates are reviewed quarterly and are subject to change.
PROVISIONAL:
Bookings can be held as provisional for up to 14 days, after which the booking is required to release or confirm. A 20% refundable deposit is required to confirm the booking.
CONFIRMED:
Once confirmed with a 20% deposit, the booking is held on a status of ‘confirmed with refundable deposit’ until any of the following becomes true:
Final payment is due 60 days prior to arrival. Any outstanding balance on the total reservation value shall be required to be settled at 60 days prior to arrival.
All refundable deposits, commitment fees and full payments are held in a separate call account and do not become part of the operational cash flow until the guest has stayed.
The amount stated on the invoice is what must be received by Tanda Tula nett of bank charges.
CANCELLED
Cancellations must be received and acknowledged by Tanda Tula in writing.
‘Confirmed with refundable deposit’: bookings carry no cancellation fees up to 61 days prior to arrival.
‘Confirmed with commitment’ or ‘Confirmed with full-payment’: in the event of any reservation being cancelled after Tanda Tula has issued a confirmation, for any reason other than a WHO-recognised pandemic that impacts the booking, the following cancellation fees will apply:
All cancelled bookings that qualify for a refund, will be refunded less a handling fee valued at 5% of the refund amount.
PANDEMIC DISCLAIMER
Tanda Tula will allow postponement of a booking for up to 12 months, if travel is cancelled with a commitment fee or 60 days or less prior to arrival due to a WHO-recognised pandemic directly impacting the guests’ ability to travel (e.g. lockdown, no flights, guest not allowed to board a flight, guest falls ill due to a pandemic and unable to travel).
In the event of a WHO-recognised pandemic directly impacting the ability of Tanda Tula to meet its obligations with respect to the booking, all monies received, including the commitment fee, will be fully refunded (e.g. lockdown in RSA, government restrictions on trade).
Any refund is given at the discretion of Tanda Tula management and will be charge a handling fee valued at 5% of the refund amount.
All travellers are advised to take out fully comprehensive travel insurance with ‘cancellation for no reason’. This insurance must be able to fully cover cancellation of travel fewer than 60 days prior to arrival.
The Terms and Conditions are subject to change without notice.
