Seblat Elephant Training Center : Choice for Eco-travelers

Seblat  Elephant Training Center is one of the choices for eco-travelers to visit the province of Bengkulu.  This training center is located in northern part of  Bengkulu city, about 120 km away and can be reached within four to five hours of driving. Before reaching the camp, visitors must across the river of more than 25 m width.  Crossing the river with wooden canoe or with an elephant are very challenging and thrilling.  Visitors are allowed to stay overnight and this camp, of course, in a wooden camp.  This training center allows their visitors to have direct interaction with all the ‘trainees’. In companion with the trainers, visitors could  feel the sensation of  feeding the elephants, bathing them, as well as riding it to have a jungle tour and crossing the river.  

This center is located closed to the Kerinci National Park,  occupies more than 6800 hectares of land and is classified as Natural Tourism Park provides good home for 100 elephants.  This enchanting natural park  does not only provide a good interaction with elephants and better knowledge about elephants, but also provide other interesting animals (including tiger and birds) and endemic plants.  In addition to the national park, other interesting sites to visit is the palm oil plantation around the training center. So does the local people in surrounding center.   It is admitted that the visitors are still dominated by students, researchers, policy makers, and occasionally volunteer.  Nevertheless, the ecosystem of tropical rain forest around this center is significantly important to the eco-travelers.