Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Well, it is now Christmas Eve - and outside it is something like 26 degrees at 9am in the morning. We are now in Port Elizabeth airport, just having checked in for our flight to Cape Town - so thought we would fill you in on our travels over the past two days. Writing duties fall to Gavin today - as Claire is sitting outside catching some sun before we board the plane for a ‘sunless’ two hour period. Serious sun-bathing that, eh!
But what have we been up to over the past two days? Well, after leaving our fabulous tree house in Plettenberg Bay, we set out on the road towards Port Elizabeth and the Addo Elephant Park. Claire is feeling a bit distressed though - the sun is in the sky; there are no clouds; it is 27 degrees at 9am in the morning ... and we will be in the car for the next four hours. Solution? Wind down the window, stick your face and arms outside, and get some sun on the way down the road (too much as it turns out, as Claire’s arms mirror a piece of bacon by the time we get to Addo!)
That is a total exaggeration Patch - a little red perhaps, but nothing a little bit of aloe vera didn’t fix.
The journey from Plettenberg Bay to Port Elizabeth is about 250km along the main N2 road that seems to traverse the Western and Eastern Capes of South Africa, and the road we have been making our way along for the past few days. However, it is not a ‘Great Ocean Road’ style road - no twists and turns here, just miles (or kilometres!) of straight road with a speed limit of 120km to keep my passenger happy. And the scenery is quite spectacular too - so I am happy as well. I have to admit that I didn’t expect South Africa to be as mountainous and green as it is - but throughout the journey to Port Elizabeth we seem to have mountains on our left; and sea-scape on our right. Anyway, we made pretty good time, and made it to Port Elizabeth in about 3 hours, with just two stops - for petrol and to pay the R11.50 toll.
Port Elizabeth marks the ‘official’ end of the Garden Route.
I am guessing that Port Elizabeth must be a
venue for some of the games during the 2010 World Cup Finals - as the airport is bedecked in advertising for it, nearly two years before it takes place. With this in mind, I thought I would ask cocky-joe ‘2008 Fantasy Football Manager of the Year Elect’ Father in Law a footie question - please name the South African born footballer who presently plays for Rangers? Answers by return text message please!
After leaving the N2, we headed up the B class road to Addo Elephant Park - no twists and turns but plenty of pot holes. After about an hour, we arrived at the Park and proceeded right in. Addo is primarily visited by tourists for the large number of elephants that live there, however the other species that the park is well known for are zebra, buffalo, lions, black rhino, eland, kudu, warthog, ostrich and red hartebeest. The park is 164,000 hectares - so plenty of space for the animals to hide and us to explore!
Back to me (as we are now through departures - no fire arms to declare! - and awaiting our flight).
When we first arrived, we headed straight for the booking area and
booked a sundowner drive for the following evening - these are great as you see both daytime and nocturnal amimals on the one drive. We then fastened our seatbelts, put the windows all the way up and locked the door and headed out into the game area in our own car (as you are permitted to do at Addo). Virtually as soon as we started we caught glimpse of our first animal - a little rhino - this was really exciting as it went across the road right in front of our car. Shortly after, we came across about 4 or 5 elephants and it wasn’t long before we came across buffalo, warthog, ostrich and hartebeest. We also went up to one of the lookouts where G sent me out of the car for the attached photo for the blog - I said you wouldnt be happy mum! You will see from the sign Beware of Lions - alight from vehicle at your own risk - G happily took the photo from the car window!!
We laughed the following day when went back into the park however, as the day before we had been really excited by seeing the 4
or 5 elephants, however on our morning drive, we must have seen over 100, some on their own and also several packs, two with little baby elephants in tow. (Addo has had 3 of the worlds 4 elephant twin births!) These were great to see, however I did get G to put the car in reverse when they came thomping up the road towards us! (fact for the day - the elephants are very family orientated and unlike lions, like to form herds with strong family ties. The largest pack in Addo consists of over 90 elephants, with its leader - the matriarch - being almost 61 years old (G said almost as old and wrinkly as homer!!). The matriarch is also always female - think the elephants have it right that the woman should be the boss!)
In our morning drive, we were also lucky enough to see what I was really hoping for - the zebra! We caught them at one of the watering holes, and as we sat there for quite a while, about 8 zebra came down to the watering hole for a drink and a splash. As we sat at the watering hole, we could
see a couple of elephants also coming in so waited and saw one of the elephants showering itself (G said it splashed more than me - but only just!). It is total luck with your timing, as some people can drive around and see nothing, however we were very lucky with lots of sightings on both of our drives. Later in the morning, we also saw some more warthog (including a little baby one) and hartebeest.
We then headed back to the hotel for an afternoon in the sun by the pool (G also tried to fit all the clothes and wine and beer into the cases) before starting our sundowner drive at 6pm. We were in a group of 8 in the jeep, together with the guide Theo, and started off on our search for the animals. Like Phillip Island last year, we forgot that it actually can get chilly in the wind at night in Africa and arrived for our 2 and a half hour drive in shorts and t-shirt. The couples in front of us (all South African) were dressed for the Antarctic with hats, jumpers and windcheaters thought we were crazy! We will definitely remember next
holiday!
It wasn’t long before we saw our first sightings, and this was a pack of over 30 elephants, all feeding just by the road. We drove right into the middle of them and were literally an arm length away from them. G laughed when I ducked when one of them started to come towards the vehicle! We saw lots more animals and then just before it turned to darkness we turned into one of the fields and all got out of the vehicle for sundowner drinks (I took my own tinnie) and nibbles. This was very bizarre as you could see the elephants just about a hundred metres away. As G was taking my photo he turned into “John” and forgot about the drink in his hand when he went to get his camera, so not only was he in shorts and tshirt for the drive, he was now in wet shorts and tshirt - the guide got a laugh though! We did however have to pack up rather hastily though as one of the elephants took exception to us being there and came right towards us so the guide ushered us all swiftly back inside the vehicle.
When it turned into darkness, Theo turned on his spotlights and we had to look for the animals eyes to find them. This was really cool and we were lucky to see a couple of hyena’s come out to look for food just by the jeep.
After our drive, we headed back to the hotel for a late dinner and retired to bed for a few more minutes of the Christmas film - almost there!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.158s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0678s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb