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Published: October 13th 2009
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Warning - this blog will contain loads of animal photos
Wed 7 Oct
Bloody typical, the day I have to travel is gorgeously sunny and hot. Anyhow, managed to take in the rays all morning before Ady gave me a lovely lunch and I got a lift up to the bus I decided to use Intercape this time and boy was it a cut above the Baz bus. They had wide reclining seats and huge windows, with a conductress on board to get you checked in and also to bring round drinks. I was lucky and got the front seat on the upper deck, so had a grand view. And cheaper.
The trip from Plett to PE was 3.5 hours but it was an interesting drive. We stopped off briefly at Jeffreys Bay and I saw the legendary right break wave that all the surfer dudes had been raving about. There is also a Billabong outlet factory in JBay, which is meant to be a good place for bargains.
Maggie from the Addo Gateway Lodge collected me as arranged and when we got back to the village of Cannonville on the Sunday River, we stopped off at her
friends house where there was quite a crowd of people round the bar, including her husband Les and another Maggie who was Scottish and her other half Bertie. They were a great bunch and we had a fun boozy evening and I arranged to stay an extra night on Saturday on their Maggie May houseboat.
Thurs 8 Oct
As it was dark last night when I arrived this was my first look at the view from the guest house. The Sundays River is just across the road and the most enormous sand dune it dead opposite. Bit surreal really seeing such a huge dune away from the desert but apparently this area has the the largest sea-sand dunes in the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately I don’t have time to do the rivertrip to see the really huge ones farther downstream as I am spending the next couple of days doing what you MUST do in Africa - safari.
On Maggie’s recommendation I booked a day/night Tooth and Claw game drive with a private reserve called Schotia Safaris so got a lift there for a 2.30pm start. We were 7 passengers in a 4-tiered open sided jeep with a Ranger
called Barbara who was very knowledgeable. I sat in the front which was the lowest level but was slightly more sheltered from the very string wind. They provided fleece lined ponchos and blankets which we used from about 5pm onwards. The entrance was through a couple of sets of electronic gates that reminded me of the scene when they entered Jurrasic Park.
Between 2.30 and 7.30pm we saw lion, zebra, jackals, crocodiles, rhino, giraffe, loads of different monkeys and birds, warthogs, wildebeest and about 10 of the different antelope-types (apart from eland). We stopped briefly for tea/coffee and scones about 5pm when it started to get pretty cold. After dinner we did another hour of night drive.
I will let the pictures show some of the huge range of game we saw, but the highlights were 3 encounters with lions. The first was when we came across two females and managed to get quite close. From the angle of our arrival we did not realise that the massive male was lying flat on the ground behind them, fast asleep. It was quite a shock when we drove around to the other side and he popped up his head.
The second encounter was as we watched the group later in the day come down off a hill towards us in the valley. It was fascinating watching the reactions of the other animals as the lions came into smelling distance and then actually into view. The last was the most spectacular as it was pitch black after dinner when we were driving out of the Reserve and saw a lioness chasing a wildebeest. The Rangers use hand-held spotlights to pick up the nighttime action and it catch the reflection of eyes. The night-drive was full of unusual sightings and sounds, including a bushpig and porcupines, all under the most amazing bright starscape.
The evening was fun with a huge firepit in an open air lapa which has reed and sneezewood walls and is open to the skies apart from the outer edge where the dining tables are, which is covered in thatch. They burned branches of brushwood here which flared up and made bright red dancing flames and very welcome heat. Dinner was good food and a free bar. Had a good chat with an Ozzy family from north of Sydney about where to go when I reach that
part of the world.
Fri 9 Oct
Got collected by Eta our guide and 4 fellow passengers in a large minibus at the guest house at 9am for what turned out to be a full days game drive at Addo Elephant Reserve. It was meant to be a half day booking but there was a mix up, so I got the full day at the reduced rate - bargain.
We started off by being asked to run our hands over the bee-sting bush which tingles and gives mild stings as you do it but then continues to give more of the mild sting feelings for a couple of minutes afterwards. It obviously doesn’t bother the elephants who eat lots of it. We also were asked to try the leaves of the bushes that the elephants eat most (cant remember the name) with small succulent leaves that were quite sweet and lemony.
After driving through the new south section where there are some animals but they have not released the elephants there yet, we entered the main section of park though another double set of electric gates and got introduced immediately to the flightless dung beetle which is
unique to the Addo area. We saw thousands of them during the day, most of the females diligently pushing their balls of dung along while the males waited for it to be buried and for sex. Talking of sex, after having been taught how to sex tortoise at the ostrich farm a couple of weeks ago, I saw the real thing going on in all its glory all over the place today, with the males mounting the females (eventually) then pulling ET faces and groaning loudly. We also saw some of them having trouble mounting, with lots of shell clashing and chasing going on - well pretty slow chases to be honest.
During the day we saw lots of elephants of course, which were my aim in coming here and also my favourites. However we also saw buffalo, eland, jackal, meercats and mongoose, zebra, warthogs, loads of birds and different antelope types AND pretty little monkeys who had bright blue bollocks - I promise you they were really bright blue, almost turquoise.
I wish we could have spent longer watching some of the elephants we encountered as there were loads of babies that were cute and we saw
one lot playing in the mud of a waterhole and another with a whole family that walked within touching distance right next to our truck which was a really memorable experience Also at one stage we were nearly seen off by a stroppy large bull elephant, which got our adrenaline pumping a bit. Turned out we were not as important as his dinner, so after a mock charge and some serious eyeballing, he left us alone and when back to munching on a bee-sting bush.
For the first time since arriving in SA I had a disappointing meal. We had lunch at the main camp restaurant in the centre of the Reserve and it was not good.
I had booked a massage for the evening which was very welcome after the best part of 2 full days bouncing around in trucks driving over rough ground and straining our necks sideways trying to spot game. Ruth did a great job in ironing out the solid lumps in my neck and shoulders and I had an early night after updating this blog offline as there is no wifi anywhere near.
I will split this week into 2 blog entries
due to the number of photos.
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Kim
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Lucky Woman
I so wanna be you right now!!!!! I must take after you cause I love elephants!!! Thanks heaps Mum for the great pics I really felt like i was there next to them. Keep it coming. X KIM