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:
