Heading west along a dirt road to the N2 from Kosi Bay, South Africa’s last free-ranging elephants are protected in the sandveld (dry, sandy coastal belt) forests of Tembe Elephant Park, a Transfrontier Park on the Mozambique border, owned by the Tembe Tribe and managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. Around 230 elephants live in its 30,000 hectares; these are the only indigenous elephants in KZN, and the largest elephants in the world, weighing up to 7000kg.
The park boasts the Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino), plus more than 300 bird species.