A "poort" is a way through the mountains at the bottom of the valley. A "pass" is a way across the mountains over the top. Prince Albert is our destination. It's Saturday. We plan to journey from Sedgefield after the Farmer's Market via Meiringspoort with a lunch stop at the quaint little town of De Rust, for an overnight stay at the old town of Prince Albert, returning on Sunday via the Swartberg pass with a lunch stop at Oudtshoorn in the ostrich region. This is the Karoo region, dry, barren, mountainous..There is the promise of hot dry days, nights filled with clear starry skies, and olive farms. What more could anyone ask? The drive through the Meiringspoort was spectacular, endless mile after mile after mile of rugged, rocky overhangs that looked as if they would ... read more

I Still can't post my video clips directly to the travelblog. I must first upload them to YouTube on my channel, then post the link below Which will take you to the videos on YouTube when you click on it. So here they are, my 3 Addo videos. Sorry, but the Quality of sound is a disaster, can't be helped. I have no audio editing capability but some of the conversations especially in the car were hilarious. So eavesdrop if you like lol. And the Quality of picture for first and third videos were quite good originally, when recorded, but somehow seems to have gone fuzzy in the transfer. I have no idea why or what to do to correct it. 1). Four minutes of pure Ellies ... A parade of elephants romping (http://youtu.be/8ZQ_IHMVrAM) 2). 2 ... read more

It is true that everyone is captivated by the spell of the chance of seeing a lion. The ellies are to be seen everywhere but not the lions. Lions hold that extra thrill of danger, ellies not. Lions can pounce and eat you. Ellies can't! So there's the imaginary thrill of the chase. There are only 6 adults which were introduced to the park about 10 years ago and they roam freely. However not long ago the park separated (temporarily I think) two lionesses which are roaming behind a new fenced area (the fences are electrified) just beside the Main Camp. And the males will come to look for them when they are ready to mate. So the possibility of knowing where to look with success is higher. The Sunset Drive leaves camp at 530 just ... read more

Addo minutes after arrival at the camp around 445pm, we checked in to the very comfy log cabin, and then impatiently set off on our initial exploratory self-drive jaunt. Almost instantly, on leaving the enclosure and entering the wild, we encountered a giant bull elephant in the bushes, then a family of 3 elephants with accompanying heaps of poop on the road. Soon becomes obvious to anyone that the heaps of giant size poop are tell tale signs of elephant life. Elephants are enchanting. I could happily sit and look at them feeding or at the watering hole for hours. With their thick grey wrinkled skins, stringy swishy tails, thick unshapely posts for legs, big flapping ears and floppy long 'snouts' reaching the ground, you'd expect they would be clumsy. Far from it. They are delicate. ... read more

What a perfect day for a garden visit! Clear blue skies and warm temperatures as we head out early to visit the famous Kirstenbosch Gardens the national botanical garden of South Africa. We wanted to get in ahead of the big groups later in the day. And there is the much anticipated visit to the Townships in the afternoon. Kirstenbosch was est. in 1913 after it was left to the nation in 1902 on the death of Cecil John Rhodes - he wanted to protect the slopes of Table Mountain from urban development. Today it is one of the great botanical gardens of the world, it's first curator having trained at Kew Gardens Alison had booked a shuttle (golf) cart buggy with a guide to take us on a one hour tour, and that's the best ... read more