June | 2010 | blog.joshandjeannette.com

Road Trip Day 3: Addo Elephant National Park

Tuesday, June 29

Addo, RSA

We were up by 5:30am, out before the sun, and at the gate when they opened. We started seeing animals immediately! There were kudu and elands feeding in the dark and as the sun came up we saw zebra and jackals.

The logistics of the park are such that upon entering the gate with your pass, you self drive in your car around on a series of loops and trails wherever you would like. The watering holes were a great hotspot to find animals, and in the early morning and early evening the open fields were a good spot to find grazing animals. Elephants traipsed wherever they pleased throughout the day and it was always exciting to happen upon a herd crossing your path.

In the morning, we only saw elephants from a distance – but by now (around 9:30am) we were starving and needed to find food. We left through a public road that bisects the northern and southern halves of the park and leads right to the village of Addo. Passing through the gate, the gatekeeper gave us a couple Rand and asked us to bring him back a Daily Sun. We couldn’t find anyplace to eat, but grabbed some local snacks and a Daily Sun at a gas station. We delivered our paper to the gatekeeper and then ventured down into the southern half of the park for about an hour. We didn’t see a single animal down there, and we were starting to feel a little cranky so we headed back up to the Main Camp in the northern half. On the way back to our chalet we saw A TON of elephants, up close and personal.

Seeing the elephants just stops you in your tracks. They are huge, majestic animals. We saw so many together in families. They have such intelligent eyes that look like they are full of understanding and wisdom. We got to see little babies nap in the shade of siblings and amble around, and young adolescents tussle with each other. The elephants were by far the highlight of our Addo time. We estimate that saw more than 60 elephants in our visit. Twice we were so close to them (us still in the car, of course), we were just a little nervous.

We took a nap at home around 1:30pm as we were both sick by now. After our nap we headed back to the camp restaurant for dinner, caught a bit of soccer, and then checked out the Main Camp’s underground hide where you could view game at a watering hole. We got to see kudu there while we were checking it out. After the sun went down we went on a guided night ride in an open safari vehicle. We didn’t see any lions, but we did get to see lots of nocturnal animals. There are only 10 or so lions in the whole park, which is how much the land can sustain. The guide tried hard to find the pride, and the party that went out before us found the the lions, but they were off on a hunt by the time we got out there. Back at camp we watched the first half of the Spain – Portugal game, but we were struggling with our colds, campfire smoke and general tiredness from the early morning, so we went to bed before the finish.

We saw many animals during our time at Addo, including a variety of birds, but here is what we marked off of our checklist that the Addo Park gave us:

Elephant
Buffalo
Scrubhare
Red Hartebeest
Warthog (everytime we saw one, Jeannette thought of Lion King and Pumbaa!)
Common Dulker
Bushbuck
Eland
Burchells Zebra
Kudu
Blackbacked Jackal
Bat Eared Fox
Ostrich
Leopard Tortoise
Springhare

We had such a great time!

The sunrise with some horns in the foreground:

Waking up:

Lady Kudu:

Zebra:

Blackbacked Jackal:

Pretty Bird:

Pumbaa!

A nice grand, old kudu:

Two kudu at the watering hole:

It was a dangerous watering hole:

The kudu wrestling:

Buffalo:

Ostrich:

“When he was a young warthog”

Our first up close encounter!

These little guys were tussling by the watering hole:

A family get together (or a couple of families’ get togethers):

The littlest one is sleeping in the shade of the adolescent:

After the little baby woke up it had some big stretches and scratches while it stood under a mama:

A nice view:

We were stuck behind these guys for awhile:

So close:

A little baby turtle, crossing the road:

A herd decided the grass was greener on the other side:

This little baby practiced moving trees by lifting this dead branch with his trunk. Super cute!

There was one lookout point where you could get out of your vehicle, “at your own risk”.

A big tortoise!:

The sunset from the underground hide back at the Main Camp:

We rode in a vehicle like this for our night ride:

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28
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 2: Oudtshoorn to Addo

Monday, June 28

Oudtshoorn, RSA to Addo, RSA (425km or 264mi)

We knew we were getting a late start on the road after enjoying Buffelsdrift, and then our visits to both the Cango Caves and the Cango Ostrich Farm. We wanted to get driving back on the “Mountain Route” (Route 62) as quickly as possible so we would see as much of the landscape as we could while it was still light. There wasn’t much hope of reaching Addo before dark though. We headed out through Oudtshoorn, back to Route 62 and really enjoyed finishing this scenic drive. We merged back with the N2 around Humansdorp for a quick shot to Port Elizabeth while listening to the day’s soccer game in multiple languages again on the radio.

The sun was starting to set at this point and we had a ways to go on the teeny tiny Route 335 in pitch black up the western edge of the park, through the village of Addo, to get to the Main Gate. It was a hair-raising drive as semis would come barreling down towards us and there was not enough room on the road for both of us and no shoulder to drive on and no light to see if there was a safe soft shoulder to pull to the side. In fact the highway was so narrow that the yellow line wasn’t painted on the asphalt; it was painted on the dirt to the side of the asphalt. It was a nervous hour. Somehow, Josh thought it would be better to get through this portion of the drive as quickly as possible, so we also did this at speed.

We were relieved to arrive at the gate. We were welcomed by the park’s gatekeeper, who took down our information and reason for our visit, and then made sure that we knew that Ghana had “buried” the U.S. a few days ago. After checking in and getting the key to our chalet, we got settled. The chalet was large with a kitchen and bath – very comfy. We ate dinner at the Main Camp’s restaurant. While the food was unremarkable, we had a great bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc from the Durbanville Hills winery. We didn’t finish the wine with dinner so we took our bottle and glasses over to the outdoor picnic venue they had set up for World Cup viewing and watched the late game of Brazil versus Chile. There was a group of Brazilians at the park who set up a table to watch the games with all their gear and flags and parked their car out front with an over-sized replica trophy strapped to the top – almost the size of the whole car. They were a little over the top, but it was all in good fun. We hit the hay early because we were both fighting African winter colds and so we could get up before the sun and see the most animals possible in the morning!

The second leg of the road trip:

View Larger Map

Drive on Route 62:

Our accommodations at Addo:

South Africa / Travel — 1 Comment
28
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 2: Cango Ostrich Farm

Monday, June 28

Oudtshoorn, RSA

After driving back towards the city to get back on Route 62, we didn’t get far. We realized we needed to visit a real ostrich farm if we were going to truly “do” Oudtshoorn. We couldn’t drive past the Cango Ostrich Farm without stopping in for a tour. After some lessons on the history of ostrich farming in South Africa and on ostriches themselves, we got to go and see the farm. We got to “hug” ostriches, see some eggs, see the emus they have, watch some ostrich jockeys, and then Josh got an “ostrich massage”. The guide had Josh hold the feed bucket in front him while a ton of the female ostriches craned their necks over and around his shoulders to get in the bucket.

Cango Ostrich Farm:

Getting our ostrich hugs:

This is the nicest female (which we hugged) and on the right is a dwarf ostrich female. Every time they try to put her in a pen with another female, the big one beats her up, so she lives alone.

This is one of their emus:

The mating pairs have these houses to nest in:

A male, checking us out:

A look at all the pens:

Ostrich jockeys:

Josh getting his “massage” and really thinking about his earring! From the beginning of the tour, the guide had been teasing Josh to watch his “shiny” earring because it was just the perfect shiny type of bauble (and height) that an ostrich would love to peck at and eat!

Josh checking the eggs:

The shells are super strong!

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28
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 2: Cango Caves

Monday, June 28

Oudtshoorn, RSA

We knew we were in ostrich country, what we didn’t know is we were right by one of South Africa’s top tourist destinations: the Cango Caves (official site)! Additionally, Jeannette is a sucker for caves and caverns. So we drove on over to the caves before getting on the road and we were glad we did! We had a great guide and really enjoyed the tour.

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28
Jun 10

Road Trip Day 2: Breakfast at Buffelsdrift

Monday, June 28

Oudtshoorn, RSA

We woke up with the sun – and to hippos! We had coffee in bed in the huge, fluffy, white robes. We used the fun outdoor shower and then made our way to the main building for the buffet breakfast. The hippos were at the corner of the watering hole closest to the restaurant – it was loads of fun to eat with the hippos. And then elephants made an appearance too! We walked around the whole camp before checking out and setting off on the rest of our drive to the Eastern Cape. We LOVED the Buffelsdrift Game Lodge.

The morning sun outside our tent: