Nestled past the picturesque Garden Route, about 5.5 hours east of Oudtshoorn and just an hour north of Port Elizabeth, is the Addo Elephant National Park. Spread over about 450,000 acres, this national park is a true goldmine. In addition to being home to one of the biggest herds of captive elephants (about 550), it is also home to ostriches, zebras, mongoose, jackals, elands, tortoises, flightless dung beetles, warthogs, lions, kudus, all types of birds and more. Some of my favorites were the kudus with their spiral horns…
The sleeping lions…
Grazing zebras…
and the rare flightless dung beetles crossing the road with, you guessed it, big balls of dung.
I recommend going early. It’s eerily quiet at 7am, with hardly another car on the winding roads through the park, and seeing animals with no one else around makes you feel like you are spying these majestic creatures truly in the wild. There’s so much to see that the park will be closing before you know it. Make sure you pack a lunch!
Cost: About US$16 per person for self-drive game viewing (I had a rental car). You can find out more information about prices and the park generally on the official website here. Highly recommended.