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Hit the road by 6am, Chloe followed us down the drive then ran off to another warm room to sleep.
The plan is to see Monkey Town just out of George, it opens at 8am and we should be there in time, spend a little time there then get to Addo early in the afternoon.
Carmen the Garmin worked a treat and the roads were windy but nothing like the ones we were on to get to Oudtshoorn so we made it there in great time, in fact they were still setting up and opening.
HAPPY MONKEYS GALORE
They rescue all breeds of monkeys, lemurs etc that have been pets or in zoos, some smuggled from South America and there were a lot Lemurs from Madagascar. We were given a guide (you can’t walk through without one) who perhaps has been with the monkeys a little too long, nice guy, very knowledgeable but just a little odd. There were paths to follow and you would need a week to go along them all, the whole area was massive. It’s basically a huge section of forest that has had a fence put around it. After the monkeys have
spent about 6 months being used to just being a monkey again and slowly adjusting to not being in a cage, they are released into the forest. All the different breeds cohabitate quite well, it’s really noisy and sounds like someone is being slaughtered, but it’s just all the different calls to each other, negotiating boundaries etc. There are feeding tables with all sorts of food, some that monkeys should eat, like fruit, and some they shouldn’t, like bread. They do this because these monkeys have spent their whole lives eating things they shouldn’t, like lollies etc so they still get some bad stuff, but only bread and pup, which is like porridge or polenta.
Back on the road, bound for Addo. The roads here are just so easy to drive on, it will be a disappointment to drive on the country highways back home again!
One more petrol stop before Addo and then finally we turn off the highway onto a dirt road, it’s so close and we’re so excited! Just going along the dirt road we see a monkey and we’re squealing like 3 year olds who have just seen Santa, what are we going to
be like when we see a lion!
ADDO, AT LAST!
After driving along the dirt road, we get to a huge wooden gate, it looks like something out of a movie, an attendant comes and after we explain who we are (and he checks that we do have a reservation) he opens the gate. He explains we have another 10km of dirt road before the camp and to drive only 40kph and to keep our windows up because of wild animals, we figured this was a standard line to get people excited.
Then we saw a family of warthogs, so we slow down to 30kph, then we saw a zebra, slow down again…..
Then we arrive at Gorah Elephant Camp about 1pm- what an amazing place. As we approach we can see the tent huts and each one is huge, maybe the size of 2 double garages end to end, have wooden floors, a verandah and a solid roof over the tent. There are wooden paths leading to each and they are a big enough distance from each other that animals can wander between them - and they do, there were zebras right next to the
first one!
Someone is there to greet us as soon as we arrive, they ask us what baggage we want taken to our room and then they whisk us away. That is the last time we see the car, and who cares!
We get taken to the verandah of the main building and there is a view of a big plain, maybe 50mtrs (give or take, I’m a shocker with distances!) is a waterhole with more warthogs there (I love warthogs!). We do the obligatory paperwork (they even ask your likes and dislikes for food), explain the rules, such as how close you can get to the waterhole and we are not allowed to walk to or from our tents after dark without a guide, what time the game drives are, what time your guide will do his wake up call in the morning (this involves bringing you, tea coffee, hot chocolate, juice - whatever you like to drink in bed before coming down for breakfast), what time afternoon tea is and lastly what time the game drives are. Then they take us to another verandah overlooking the waterhole for lunch, everything is included in the price here,
all meals, non alcoholic drinks (suits Tim and I!) and game drives.
We were expecting maybe an assortment of sandwiches or salad, but it was a full 3 course meal (at this moment we presume that lunch is the main meal), and soooo nice, even though they can only use what food they have already on site they matched our preferences perfectly, we could barely move afterwards! The chef even came and introduced herself afterwards.
Everything is so calm and quiet everyone only talks in a whisper, it was golden.
Then they took us to our tent, unfortunately we had to walk uphill, not so easy after our meal. To get to our tent we had to walk through the pool area, I dipped a toe and it was FREEZING, but the area looked nice, just won’t be getting used by me any time soon!
The tents looked impressive from the road, but that doesn’t prepare you for how grand they were inside! There was 2 gas heaters one in the bathroom, 2 big comfy chairs (I fell asleep in one as soon as I sat in it!). There is champagne, a huge lolly jar, biscuits
and Sherry for us to help ourselves to. The bathroom is enormous even with an enclosed toilet. There is truly nothing they haven’t considered, even 2 showerheads in the shower! Easily nicer than some 5 star hotels we have stayed at.
So at 3:30pm we go down for High Tea, even though we are struggling to move still from lunch, we are now faced with whatever we would like to drink, so many cakes to choose from, what a dilemma. So to be polite we have some cake and a drink, just to be polite…
OUR FIRST GAME DRIVE
Then it’s time for our first ever game drive! Our guide is Andrew, great guy so easy going who reigns from Durbin, and like me, also likes warthogs and even had one as a pet!
The vehicles are Landcruisers with the roofs chopped off and 3 rows of bench seats behind the driver. Each row is a little higher than the one in front and on each seat there is a blanket and bottle of water. We are with another couple on honeymoon from Ireland.
Off we go, immediately we see a whole heard of water
Suspension bridge
It's pretty well made of twigsbuffalo, Kudu, wilderbeast and zebras, and of course more warthogs (they are quite prolific and some places even have to cull them as most parks and reserves do not have enough natural predators to let nature take its course), we even saw the elusive black rhino! We also came upon a lone elephant called John who has been outcast from his herd, this is what happens to the males, so there are many male elephants leading lonely lives. Although TV portrays elephants to always remain in one big happy family, not so.
Around 6pm Andrew pulls up on top of a hill in a clearing, we all get out and then he sets up the most amazing little ‘bar’ for us. There is everything imaginable to drink and nibble’s. It was all so amazing we didn’t even get a photo!
We get back to the main lodge around 7pm, as there is no electricity there are candles and gas lanterns alight everywhere, it looks magical, there are 2 log fires roaring away and I instantly become the fire hog. Forgot to add by the end of the game drive everyone was bundled into their jackets and buried under
Suspension bridge #2
Good place to hang out. We cannot go further on bridge until they decide to leave. their blankets.
We decide to have dinner straight away; we thought if we went back to our room to freshen up and get changed we would never come back as we were so tired…
We thought lunch was amazing, well it had nothing on dinner! While still in the lounge by the fire we were each given a menu, addressed to each person individually and it had 2 choices for each course (3 courses again, so much for our thoughts of lunch being the main meal) and the menus reflected our individual tastes, so my menu was different to Tim’s. We gave our order and they left us by the fire until dinner was ready to be served, and they won’t bring it until you are seated.
The dining room looked romantic with all the candles. Each table was set only for how many people were in each group. So tonight there were 3 couples. We sit at the table with the Irish couple and were close enough to be able to have a good chat.
After dinner, we are walked (or waddled) back to our tent as it’s now dark. The other couple was saying
Toll gate
If I have to pay for such good roads, so be it last night they had a family of monkeys running up and down the roof of their tent so they couldn’t sleep, we’re hoping for the same!
When we get to our tent all the external window and door flaps are down. Inside all the candles are lit and the heaters are on, brilliant!
Tim climbs into bed first and screams because his foot touched something! When we look, there are 2 hot water bottles to warm our bed! I laugh myself to sleep!
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Ros Gregson
non-member comment
grego90@bigpond.com
Absolutely fantastic, I can tell by your smiles at dinner what a great day you had. You better start doing a bit more exercise if you keep having those meals. Even that you are married now Tim - you still have too. Great photo's!! XXoo