Blogs from Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 5

30/01/09 - This morning we went on another safari at Addo. We saw a lot more animals than the previous night with the first being a pride of lions right next to the road. We were parked so close to one of the males that a fellow passengers remarked that one leap and he would reach the jeep. However, the ranger answered that he had no reason to as they were all used to cars and people, were well-fed and the male was more interested in one of the females anyway. We stayed there for about 5 minutes, then moved on and saw other animals as you can see in the pictures, but the final highlight was getting up close and personal to a herd of elephants. They walked all around us and our ranger remarked ... read more

From Coffee Bay we travelled to Port Elizabeth (PE) to fetch an extra person from the Airport then went further inland to our next accommodation, Orange Elephant Backpackers. Orange Elephant is about 8 km from Addo Elephant National Park. The rooms feel more like a guesthouse. Each little house had two double rooms with a small lounge and bathroom. The main area has a restaurant and bar area. (The food at the restaurant was very good) We spent the whole of the next day in the National Park and in the evening we sat around the camp fire and listened to a band that was also travelling along the coast. The park itself: In the park itself we did see plenty of elephants. Addo has over 450 elephants and has densest population of elephants in the ... read more

After our time at Addo we made our way to another section of the park, Woody Cape, which sits along the coastline (and doesn't house any elephants). It was from here that we were to start our 2 day hike. We met up with four young locals and cooked a braai for tea at the hut where we spent the night at the base of the trail. Day 1 of the hike was 19.5 km and was mostly walking through forest and along the beach. The scenery was amazing and we got to know the four locals as we walked along. Rohan almost trod on a puff adder along the way (I know you just gasped Kerry) but luckily we arrived at our hut for the night unharmed. The hut where we stayed was in an ... read more

After two nights at Tsitsikamma national park (where we didnt do much as Alice was feeling ill) we made our way to Addo Elephant Park, a national park of 380,000 hectares. We arrived late afternoon and after setting up our tent (safely inside the fence of the main camp) we went on an evening game drive. Unfortunately we didnt see any lions but we did get right up close to a pack of hyenas. We saw cubs playing, others feeding on carcasses and calling to each other. It really was very entertaining! The next day we spent the day driving around the park in our own car. We got really close to a herd of elephants who came right up next to the car. T'here were calves playing together and others eating and bathing in the ... read more

Nicht dass es nur den Addo Elephant Park gibt. Daneben liegen drei Haueser und ein Township, die den Namen Addo tragen. Der Baz Bus faehrt leider nicht dorthin. Also muss man den lieben Manager des Hostels anrufen und seinen Shuttle Service in Anspruch nehmen. Nachts um elf trafen wir uns dann (hatte im Bus noch einen anderen, mal wieder ein Deutscher) kennen gelernt beim Mc Donalds in Port Elizabeth. Von dort aus waren wir dann so circa halb eins im Zimmer: Ein kleines Haeuschen mit einer Wand und die Asbest-Platten oben draufgeschraubt. Bei 5 Grad draussen die wahre Freude. Gut, dass es noch eine extra Decke gab... so zart und weich. Pfff... Am naechsten Tag dann meine erste Safari. Was hamma gesehen? Elefanten! Und davon eine ganze Menge. Die Parks in dem Bereich des Landes sind ... read more