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Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape is not as well-known or as large as the Kruger National Park, but it does offer a fantastic option for those far from the Kruger (Addo is approximately an hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth), or those who prefer less crowded game-viewing. An added benefit is that Addo is malaria-free.

The park was proclaimed in 1931 to protect the remaining 16 elephant in the area. Today, the park’s 180 000 hectares are sanctuary to about 500 elephants. There are also lions, leopards, buffalo, rhino, spotted hyena, warthogs, black-backed jackal and a variety of antelope and zebra species. Addo is of course also home to the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, which has right of way on all roads.

Elephants, however, take centre stage. Elephant sightings are plentiful, and very rewarding. It is not uncommon to sit and watch a herd of around 50 elephants at a waterhole. If you visit the park outside of school holidays, you are also likely to enjoy relatively small numbers of other people watching the same elephants.

But the park has more to offer than elephants. The park stretches from the semi-arid karoo in the north, over the Zuurberg Mountains, through the Sundays River valley and right down to the coast, and therefore offers a wide diversity of biodiversity, landscapes, fauna and flora. Take your time in this lovely national park and explore it all.

The park offers a range of accommodation types, from basic to luxury, at related prices. The main camp is very popular, and rightfully so. The accommodation is lovely, and the game-viewing seems to be good in the area surrounding the main camp.

Next time you’re heading to a national park, consider the Addo. You’ll be glad you did.

Posted on 24 November 2012

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Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation

Go to:My Addo

South Africa is a country that should be travelled by road to really get a feel for its magnificent landscapes, cultural diversity, and wide range of attractions. A popular road trip for both locals and tourists is between Cape Town and Addo; a route that covers some of the most exquisite vistas of the Western and Eastern Cape, and showcases the best of what the Cape has to offer.

While you could whizz along the entire route in about 9 hours, we recommend stopping over at some of the favoured destinations for the many interesting attractions and experiences that promise to enhance your journey. Each of these destinations offer superior accommodation to fit any budget and are a comfortable drive from one another.

Here are 7 favourite destinations from Cape Town to Addo:

1. Cape Town

Rated the number one destination in the world by prominent newspapers, The New York Times and The Guardian, Cape Town is a top travel destination and one of the most beautiful cities in the world – not to mention the World Design Capital 2014. Cape Town is the melting pot of South African heritage with something for everyone, from beaches and mountains, to museums, markets, adventure activities, and more.

2. Franschhoek

While you wouldn’t be disappointed with a stay in Paarl or Stellenbosch, Franschhoek is the most beautiful wine valley in the world and represents the best of the Cape Winelands. Franschhoek is the food and wine capital of South Africa, with more award-winning restaurants than anywhere else in the country. The historical village is lined with farm-style cafés, quaint stores, and eccentric art galleries, with a backdrop of vineyards creeping up the craggy mountains.

3. Oudtshoorn

As the “Ostrich Capital of the World”, it’s no surprise that Oudtshoorn is home to some of the finest ostrich feathers, meat, and leather products. Situated along Route 62, this Klein Karoo town has wonderful mountain trails for hiking and biking, and is home to the famous Cango Caves – Africa’s largest show cave system.

4. Knysna

Surrounded by ocean, wetlands, and forest, Knysna is a popular tourist destination along the Garden Route. Whether you like to holiday on the go or take it slow, Knysna has it all; from top-class golf courses and hikes through the indigenous forests, to whale-watching cruises and lazy sundowners on the beach.

5. Tsitsikamma

Known as “the garden in the Garden Route” and referred to as the “place of much water” by the ancient San people, the Tsitsikamma is a lush indigenous forest stretching from the Bloukrans River to Clarkson in the Eastern Cape. With a high rainfall and mild climate, the forest is always green and nature lovers can enjoy a number of outdoor activities.

6. Nelson Mandela Bay

Nelson Mandela Bay is the gateway between the Garden Route and the Eastern Cape “Adventure Province” where you’ll find a wide range of activities for the whole family.  The municipality includes the towns of Uitenhage, Despatch, and Port Elizabeth which is affectionately known as “The Friendly City”. Enjoy everything from sun-drenched beaches and safari game drives, to exciting historical and cultural attractions.

7. Addo

A popular tourist region in the Eastern Cape, Addo is home to the world-famous Addo Elephant National Park – the only park in South Africa where you can see the Big 7 – rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, great white shark, and southern right whale. The malaria-free region is excellent for family safaris and you’ll be spoilt for choice with the amount of award-winning lodges and private game reserves.

 

Whether the main stint of your journey is along the N2 highway or lesser-travelled Route 62, you’ll find several alternative routes between Cape Town and Addo that will ensure your return trip is a whole new experience!

Do you have a favourite destination along the Cape to Addo Route?

Feature image from Anchor Bay Guesthouse

“I promise – I will never drink again”.

St Francis Bay photographer Clive Wright recently spend some time in Addo Elephant Park and captured this image of an elephant on a hot day.

Article source: http://www.jbaynews.com/photo-of-the-day-addo-elephant/

“I promise – I will never drink again”.

St Francis Bay photographer Clive Wright recently spend some time in Addo Elephant Park and captured this image of an elephant on a hot day.

All the photographs and articles on this site are the property of Jonker Fourie, unless otherwise stated, and may not be used, copied, transmitted, or stored without my permission.

© All Rights Reserved by Jonker Fourie and/or FireflyAfrica so please ask before using it.

E-mail: fireflyafrica@telkomsa.net

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Istanbul: Where East kisses West

Posted January 13, 2014 by Justin Fox filed under Beyond Africa, Things to do.

Addo Elephant National Park is most famous for its conservation of the last remaining wild elephants in the Eastern Cape. A few hundred years ago there were thousands of the earth’s largest land mammal in this area of South Africa, as well as plenty of other wildlife like lions, leopards, rhinos, buffaloes and springbok. But rapid colonial expansion after 1820 meant most of this diverse landscape was transformed into dairy farms and citrus fruit estates.

The elephants had a penchant for oranges in particular, and understandably they couldn’t resist raiding the farmers’ crops.  The farmers got fed up, and put pressure on the government to sort out the problem. The first solution was predictable – for the times. The Administrator of the Cape Province – Sir Frederick de Waal – started paying hunters to exterminate the elephants.

In particular, a certain bloodthirsty Major Pretorius shot 120 elephants in his first eleven months in the Addo area. During one hunt, according to the archives, he was ‘once forced to lame an elephant by shooting it through the vertebral column, then like lightning he jumped on the beast’s back, ran to its head and killed it with a shot through the neck.’ In another instance Pretorius shot 16 elephants within 30 seconds – or so his journal records.

Eventually, after decades of hunting and harassment, the remaining elephants – just 11 of them in the whole region – retreated to the almost impenetrable thicket of the Addo region, where hunters and humans couldn’t reach them. Yet they still made their forays into the farmers’ fields at night to raid the crops.

By that stage fortunately, the public had woken up to the tragedy, and quickly there were calls for the establishment of a reserve. In 1931, the national park was proclaimed, extending just over 2000 hectares. However, the reserve wasn’t fenced, so the big animals still posed a problem, frequently moving onto farm lands.

The reserve’s ranger Harold Trollope wrote in 1931 how farmers and their staff still tried to kill the elephants: ‘Farmers in some instances fired at the elephants on sight often wounding them and supplied boys with rifles giving instructions that they were to shoot any elephant they came across, and that these orders were carried out. The elephants were shot at in a most cowardly manner, from safe distances, as for instance across a kloof, but never at close quarters, and were it not for the protection offered by…the difficult bush, the Addo elephants would not have existed today.’

Elephants in Addo are accustomed to vehicles, unlike in the past

Trollope succeeded in driving the remaining elephants into the area marked for the reserve, and for the most part he and his team of park rangers managed to keep them safe. But the elephants had to wait until 1951 for complete sanctuary from the guns of farmers.

At that stage, the reserve’s ranger Graham Armstrong had devised a unique type of fence constructed of railway sleepers sunk several feet into the ground, and attached to these were old wire cables supplied free-of-charge by the Otis lift company in Port Elizabeth. This design proved so effective that eventually the entire reserve was fenced off, and the elephants weren’t able to break out – finally, after a few hundred years, both the elephants and people were happy. And today, the Armstrong fence is still used.

Today the Addo Elephant National Park conserves the Big Five, including lions (reintroduced into the area from Kgalagadi, and buffalo, which, unlike the lions, were never exterminated). However, the emphasis has shifted from species conservation towards habitat protection and restoration.  The huge increase in the park’s size from 2 000 hectares to more than 180 000 hectares is indicative of the national trend to conserving “corridors” of biodiversity. (Addo is now the third-largest national park in the country, although Garden Route National Park is not far behind).

Similar to the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve and Gouritz Initiative, Addo conserves, by design, a marvelous diversity of natural habitat: stretching from Nama Karoo in the Darlington Dam section in the far north, to fynbos and forest in the mountainous Zuurberg wilderness area, to subtropical thicket in the middle, and finally coastal dune forest and beaches in the Woody Cape section along the coast. This coastal section has the largest sand dune complex in the southern hemisphere, and it also includes a group of offshore islands that protects the largest populations of African penguins and Cape gannets in the world, as well as a sizeable Cape fur seal colony.

All these different habitats are now connected to each other over conserved land, joined together in a contiguous fashion, whereas in the past there were only isolated pieces of protected areas in a vast area that was transformed into monoculture and urban development. (Granted, the national N2 highway still divides the coastal section from the rest of the park).

The reasoning goes that ‘islands’ or ‘pockets’ of nature will eventually die out and become sterile.  Species and habitats need to be connected if they are to survive, thrive and adapt. Especially nowadays with global warming, which is predicted to have a desiccating and heating affect over much of Southern Africa. Unless species can move to other areas, and adapt at the same time, South Africa will lose most of its biological diversity over the next few hundred years or so, with potentially disastrous consequences for humans.

However, as conservation manager John Adendorff told me, even Addo’s 180 000 hectares is not a very big piece of land if one considers the huge amount of urban and agricultural development around the park. ‘It’s a highly managed park, and we monitor animal populations very closely to see how they are impacting on the vegetation.’

An Elephant takes a lunch break

Today there are more than 600 elephants in Addo, at a density of about 2,8 elephants per square kilometre, perhaps the highest in Africa. ‘They’ve got it pretty good here,’ John said smiling. It’s incredible to think that at one stage there were only 11 left in the whole Eastern Cape. Hell has turned into paradise for the ellies.

The only reason that park authorities aren’t more worried about an overpopulation of elephant is because of the thicket biome. It’s a remarkable habitat, and at its core is spekboom, a succulent bush which not only sequestrates as much carbon from the atmosphere as rainforests, but also sustains some of the highest densities of wildlife in the world.

Park manager Norman Johnson tells me that “the elephants now are so successful that they’re becoming a nice problem. At some stage, we’ll need to look at controlling the population.”

But culling is not even considered as one of the options – instead, SANParks are looking to drop more fences between the different sections of the park, allowing the elephants to roam more widely, and also thereby introducing natural stresses into the elephant’s reproduction cycles. By forcing the elephants to roam further for water and food, growth rates in the population should slow down. And then there’s always contraception, which is the next best alternative.

The last few days I’ve had some good sightings of elephant and buffalo, and although it’s been raining a lot, today there was some sunshine.

I’ve had a chance to explore the main sections, where the Big Five hang out, and also the Zuurberg mountain section, where I went for a short horse ride this afternoon with ranger Thembelane Keye. It’s quite amazing to drive twenty odd kilometres from the subtropical heat of the main section, and in no time enter the cool, windy mountains where fynbos and grassland plateaus are the norm. Reminds me of the Baviaanskloof and Gamkaberg Nature Reserve.

Well, that’s a long blog from me today, but I’ve been hibernating from the rain like the rest of the animals here. But now that the rain has stopped, I hope to post more photos and blogs. The sun’s just about to go down, and I’m going to put some kudu wors on my braai. Addo Main Camp is pretty, and the chalets looks over a little valley, where hyenas and jackal seem to hang out at night (I can hear both species calling while I lie in bed).

‘The history of the preservation of the elephants is assuredly an epic in game conservation. In this manner, the bush, clad in hazy myster, is being preserved for future generations as an unspoilt facet on the face of the Masterly creation.’ – The Addo Elephants, A National Parks Board publication (published at a time when this little book cost 50c!)
For more, go to www.yearinthewild.com and www.facebook.com/yearinthewild. Thanks again to my sponsors for making it all possible. CapeNature, South African National Parks, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Eastern Cape Parks, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Ford, Total, Evosat, Conqueror Trailers, Vodacom, Digicape, Lacie, Frontrunner, Safari Centre Cape Town, K-Way, EeziAwn, National Luna, Nokia , Garmin, Goodyear, Global Fleet Sales, Hetzner, Clearstream Consulting, and Escape Gear

 

Have you been to the Addo Elephant National Park? Tell us about your experience there in the comment box below.

 

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Our last Blog was what one can expect at River Bend Lodge so, to follow that up, a view from  a family group of Guests.

In December we were privileged to host this whole family Group sharing a reunion at River Bend Lodge and what a great time was had by all. We are grateful to the Hardy Family who chose River Bend Lodge as their destination and we are pleased that we could deliver on their expectations.

Mark Hardy very kindly took a few moments off his busy schedule and shared these photographs and words with us. Thank you Mark and best wishes to your whole family from all of us at River Bend Lodge.

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“We all had
a wonderful time at River Bend just before Christmas. What an amazingly
beautiful, sun-kissed corner of the world, and a great venue for a reunion of
our family from the UK, Austria and Hong Kong. The 5.30am starts were well
worth the pain, as your rangers always delivered! Steve and Mikey were very
attentive to our group and always eager to show us and teach us about the
nature and wildlife at Addo. And they were great with our kids and older folk
alike! We had humbling close encounters with elephant families as well as loan
bull elephants; there was challenging, wet-weather stalking of shy giraffes; we
were honoured with an awe-inspiring half hour with male lions; we enjoyed
entertaining moments with ostrich and zebras; and we even endured a few sombre
and sobering moments with a poor dead baby elephant – closely watched over by a
lounging lioness. Snacks on the game drives were just right (thanks for the
introduction to Kudu Biltong!) and meals at the lodge were an extravagant
reward for the hardship of the drive and hours of fresh air! Thanks for the
introduction to South African wines and the photography tips. And please relay
our thanks to your whole team for looking after us and making us feel so much
at home. We will cherish our memories of our stay at River Bend for many many
years.” 

Related

One of the few things I knew about South Africa’s vacation destinations before moving here was an area called the Garden Route. Nested between mountains and the Indian ocean coast of South Africa, this stretch of 800km is home to some of the most breathtaking and diverse landscapes, beaches, forests, lagoons, game reserves, and overall greenery giving it its name. According to the Guiness book of world records, it has the second mildest climate after Hawaii. Year round, it ranges from 10-30 degrees. I had been planning this trip for awhile and what a trip it was! Great decision I could have made doing this trip in the South African summer. Enjoy my recounts of the trip!

Trip Summary

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The Garden Route

The Garden Route is simply the area along the coast between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. We landed in Port Elizabeth, rented a car, and drove all the way to Cape Town via the scenic N2 highway. Having a GPS is absolutely necessary and it saved us everywhere we went. A combination of GPS + Google Maps is the best choice as a GPS won’t know where a hotel or restaurant is. The airports all over South Africa sell pay as you go sim cards and Vodacom is what I recommend for this part of the country as there are plenty of remote areas and Vodacom has the biggest cellular network.

Our Garden Route Roadtrip map. Point A is where we started in Port Elizabeth. For the full Google Maps, click here

Roadtrip, not Overland

Nothing like starting a roadtrip with only 44km on the dash of your rental car

The Garden Route is located solely in South Africa. This is a proper developed country and the roads are proper roads (unlike the dirt roads of Tanzania). There are tours done by all the major operators like Nomad, Acacia, AfricaTravelCo, etc. that do overland tours through the Garden Route but I don’t see the need unless you’re traveling on your own and want some company. I did this trip with my girlfriend who flew in from America and this is the ultimate road trip in South Africa! There is SO much to see on this stretch of land that you may miss it if you’re following someone else’s agenda. The roads are perfect, the signs are clearly labeled and helpful, everyone speaks English, and the weather’s great. As long as you have some good company, music, and a good sense of adventure, this is the trip for you.

Plan, but be Spontaneous

We stopped for a canopy tour because why not? And it was right off the N2.

Like any trip done in Africa, a well thought out itinerary is a good thing to have. However, the Garden Route is a very developed part of Africa. Many of the towns on this stretch of land are very western and you would need to think twice to remember you’re in Africa. The coast is primarily Afrikaans speaking but everyone in South Africa speaks English as well. DO make a plan for this trip, and have some semblance of an agenda. Depending on how much time you have for this trip, be spontaneous as well. There are so many little stops along the road, whether it is a game farm, wine estate, beach, hike, biltong, etc, you want to soak in as much as you can. You’re likely not going back to this area of the world anytime soon, so make the best of it. Have a rough idea of what you want to see and where you want to stay the night and take it from there. The drive from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town is around 800km. By the time I arrived at Cape Town, my trip odometer read 1600km! So that’s 800 extra km that I drove to go off the beaten path and see what I wanted to.

We could have driven straight to Cape Town and did wine farms another day but we were already here . . .

I made a plan initially, taking note of where I would be staying, and what activities I would do but things changed as I started the trip. For example, I saw in one of the airplane magazines on my flight to Port Elizabeth that Sardinia Bay is a beautiful, less crowded beach near Port Elizabeth. Never heard of it before but we decided to go just because and what a winning decision that was. You can click on the links and see how much itinerary changed from pre-trip to post trip.

Pre Trip | Post Trip

How Long?

I hate these questions, usually because I’m always on the “not enough time” side of things. The Garden Route is only 800km and can easily be driven in a day but there’s no fun in that! With so much to see, it’s all about how much time you can allocate. But alas, we live in an on the go, vacation strapped world so we have to be realistic as well. We spent 7 full days and 6 nights on our trip. We then spent 4 nights in Cape Town as CT is a trip on its own. I felt this gave us enough time to see most of what we wanted to see. We wasted no time however, was constantly on the go, and made it a point of emphasis to do as much as possible. Resting and relaxing was not high on our priority list. Who needs to rest? You’re only here once. There were some places I wish we could have stayed another night liken Hermanus, and a night or two in the winelands. In the end, we came out satisfied with our trip. Ideally, I’d recommend people to allot 7-10 days for this trip. Minimum, I’d say 4 days.

Peak Season Visiting

Plett during our trip. I came here in the winter and there wasn’t a single car.

The towns along the Garden Route are not just meant for foreign tourists, the South Africans appreciate the beauty of this part of the country just as much as us foreigners do. This is never more apparent than during the times we decided to do our road trip, late December during the Holiday Season. Holy shit it was packed in the towns. Plettenberg Bay was a complete zoo, and Cape Town may as well have been bourbon street during Mardi Gras but on a beach. The whole of Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria etc), migrate to the coast during the holiday season and combine this with all the tourists from America and Europe, and you have a recipe for mayhem. With more people, comes more demand for lodging and your hotels and BBs will be booked full so if you’re planning on doing this trip during the holiday season, absolutely make sure to book months in advance, perhaps even a half year! Expect to pay about 50% more during this time period. Also make sure to absolutely make restaurant reservations in the bigger cities like Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Hermanus and Cape Town. To put it in perspective, if we had visited durin the off season or just at a time that wasn’t during the Holidays, we could have just driven into a town and picked out our accomodation the night of because there would be such higher vacancy.

Visiting during South Africa’s summer months, you’ll be expected to pay more for lodging but not quite as much as peak season which is during the holidays. However, the summer months are the beautiful months and weather really makes a huge impact on this road trip. When it is nice and sunny out, it is REALLY nice. When it is cloudy, which we had 1 day of, it was pretty gloomy and depressing. The best time to do this trip is probably sometime between March-April when the weather is still very nice and tourism season is nearing an end.

TripAdvisor

I’m of the new school of thinking in that if hundreds or thousands of other people have visited something I’m interested in visiting and have given it rave reviews, who am I to say I’m better than those people and that I’m too good to bandwagon with the crowd? Sure tourists aren’t the same as locals but you’re not likely to find knowledgeable locals wherever you go so thank god for TripAdvisor because it’s the next best thing. I used TripAdvisor to choose all my restaurants, and book my lodging. It didn’t lead me wrong and I’m incredibly happy with all the restaurants I went to and all the places I slept at. So make sure to download the TripAdvisor app and use it liberally.

Eating Out

Seafood Paella at Lemon Butta in Hermanus. Let’s be clear here, you will not go hungry on this trip.

If you’re like me, one of the biggest and most exciting parts of traveling is sampling the local fare. South Africa has no shortage of great restaurants and the Garden route is home to many. There’s really nothing distintive about South African cuisine but this country does their steaks and seafood damn well, two things one can never complain about.  For all our meals, we just alternated between one. Some days we’d feel like steak, others we felt like we had too much red meat and it was time for some fish or prawns. Tough life. Game meats are also readily available at most restaurants and this is a must do for anyone visiting SA.

In this post, I’ll just be writing about the places we ate at which was usually one or two places per stop so in no means will this be a restaurant guide to the Garden Route (that’s what TripAdvisor is for) as I would need at least a month to be qualified to write that!

 

Day 1: Port Elizabeth

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Our roadtrip vehicle. Wish it had a sunroof but can’t complain!

And finally, the trip begins! Our flight from Joburg to Port Elizabeth landed 9am in the morning so we had the whole day to explore. Upon landing, I pick up my car at the Avis booth expecting the usual Volkswagen Polo, Honda Jazz or some other boring car but nope, we are upgraded to a brand new Mercedes C200! It only had 44km on the clock! What a great way to start the trip knowing that we’ll be rolling in style for the next 11 days. After spending some time configuring the car’s bluetooth capabilities so it would connect with our phones to play music (highly important), we are on our way. We decide to drive into Port Elizabeth and check out the city in the morning.

Port Elizabeth

Located in the Eastern Cape province, Port Elizabeth or PE as the locals call it, is one of the largest cities in SA and home to one of its major ports. There isn’t a whole lot to do in this city and we weren’t here long enough to explore it. The city is rather large and coming from the airport you’ll come to a T intersection where one side leads to the city and the other leads to Summerstrand. Without a doub, take the turn to Summerstrand. We drove around the city for all of 5 minutes initially before realizing this isn’t where we want to be and turned around to Summerstrand.

Summerstrand in Port Elizabeth

Summerstrand
This is the wealthy beachfront suburb right next to PE where everyone flocks to during the summer. The beach here is gorgeous! Long stretches of sandy beaches, tropical colored water (this is the Indian Ocean), and perfect weather. We came right around Christmas time and it was completely packed on the beach. This would be the theme for

Summerstrand Boardwalk. Popular place for the locals.

most of the trip as the entire country flocks to the coast for the holidays. A perfect time to park the car and walk around. The beach stretches on for miles and the sand is incredibly soft. We thought how great it would be to have a place here in one of the many modern condo buildings and be able to visit whenever. While we thought this beach was very nice (which it was), the beaches would actually only get better from here on out. There is also a boardwalk area with restaurants, shops, and other things.

Ginger restaurant on the water.

We spend an hour walking along the beach before breaking for lunch. There are some very good restaurants in Port Elizabeth but we only had time for lunch. There are many restaurants in Summerstrand and we picked a place called Ginger right by the beach. Other restaurants that looked appealing to me were De Kelder, The Bayside Pantry, El Greco. Ginger did not disappoint as I had some grilled fish with a beer, which would be a common theme throughout the lunches. Seafood lunch with beers for two came up to 200R.

Sardinia Bay

Sardinia Bay.

After lunch, we walked around the boardwalk which took no more than a half hour and it was only noon. Addo Elephant Park was the end destination for the day but we had 5 hours to kill before our scheduled game drive and it’s only 1 hour drive to the park. We decided let’s check out the beach we read about in the airline magazine on our flight down here. It was highly recommended and gave us something to do. Why not? Plug this place into our GPS and 25 minutes later, we’ve arrived.

Erica getting a shot on the dunes.

Wow. Now THIS is the beach to be. Not only were there just a fraction of the people here, the beach was absolutely breathtaking. No buildings or signs of civilization was the theme of this place. To top it off, we had to climb a dune from the parking lot to actually get onto the beach. There were dunes everywhere! Dunes and beaches, it’s hard to beat that combo. I felt like I was in Namibia again. The color of the water was even prettier here and the long evenly distributed waves crashing into the shore added to its beauty and this style of beach would be something we’d see many more times along the Garden Route. We ended up hiking up a dune, and passing the hell out for an hour. It was great but now I had sand all over me, a small price to pay I suppose. If you’re in Port Elizabeth for a few hours and want to see a beach, make sure to come to THIS one.

 

Day 1: Addo Elephant Park

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Entrance for the Addo Elephant Park.

Around 3pm, we figured it was probably a good time to start driving to the Addo Elephant Park as our game drive was scheduled for the sundowner at 6pm. The drive took around 1.5 hours from Sardinia Bay and we arrived to our accommodations right outside the park around 4:30. Turns out, the sunset drive which we booked starts at 5! We so droped off our bags and drive the 10 minutes to the park to make it in time.

The Game Drive

Expect to get many pics like this.

The Addo Elephant park is one of 19 game reserves in South Africa and the third largest by size at 1600 square km. This area along the Garden Route was once home to thousands of elephants until the European settlers came in and hunted these elephants for ivory until near extinction. There were only 11 elephants left in this area until this area was turned into a sanctuary dedicated to the revival of the population. Now there are almost 500 elephants here which is a massive number for a park this size. There are other animals on the game reserve like warthogs, jackals, kudu, and Cape Buffalo. The owners have also introduced a few lions into the park to control the animal population but at the end of the day, the name of this place is elephants and that is what you’re here to see. You should have zero problems spotting elephants and a lot of them at that. The drive was 300R and lasted two hours which is ample time to see this park.

Cape Buffalo staring as us.

As we started our drive, it took maybe 5 minutes before we saw our first group of elephants. Our game vehicle was fully packed with 20 people so cue the cameras here as everyone scrambled to get pics. Eventually, we saw so many elephants that no one took out their cameras unless the elephants got very close to the vehicle which is ALWAYS cool. We probably saw at least 50 elephants here. Our guide told us the best time to see them is actually during the day when it’s been dry for awhile, similar to the Etosha Park in Namibia, as the elephants all congregate to the watering holes and at times you can see 100 of them at once! We didn’t see that many, but we did have a herd of 15 of them walk within a meter of our truck as they crossed the road (Look at the picture at the top of the post). We saw some cape buffalo too which is always cool

Kudu sighting!

As the sunset, we parked in the middle of the road to have some beers and biltong that our guide had set up. The herd of buffalo we just saw were about 50 meters from us at the watering hole and a few stray bull elephants were near us as well. This was pretty cool how close we were to the buffalo. These are dangerous animals as they account for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa and we were questionably close to them. As we finish our snacks, we get back into the car, content with what we had seen in the last two hours (many elephants, buffalo, zebra, kudu etc.) and headed back. I was planning on going for another drive the following morning but I feel that a two hour drive here was all we needed. This park felt more like a giant zoo and while it’s incredibly easy to see big animals, it didn’t really feel like a proper safari. To put it in perspective, the Masai Mara in Kenya is about the same size and there must have been 10x the diversity and amount of animals.

More Pictures

Where we stayed

Our Chalet at the Aardvark Guesthouse.

All the major game reserves in South Africa are very developed and there is a wide spectrum of lodging available to everyone. Whether you want to camp for cheap or stay in a super fancy luxury lodge for 1,000$ a night, everything is possible.  I ended booking a night at the Aardvark Guesthouse after reading great reviews on TripAdvisor and Booking.com. It’s located 10 minutes outside the park and it was the perfect first night stop for us. We had a small chalet but the beds were comfortable, the showers strong, and there was a fan to keep us cool at night. For 550R a night, it is a bargain for two people and that was during peak season too so I’d expect that price to drop significantly in other months.

Where we ate

Deliciously cooked game meat at Hazel’s.

Our lodging for the night is conveniently located right next to Hazel’s, a restaurant with the top ranking on TripAdvisor for the PE area famous for serving up game meats. What better place to eat at after seeing so many animals than to a restaurant that is famous for serving them hot? We made a reservation before we left for the game drive and we arrived promptly at 8pm. Wow, what a great first dinner to start the trip! We got springbok carpaccio to start, and Wildebeast and Blesbok steak for our mains. Mmm, wow. I’ve had many game meats but never even heard of Blesbok until this place so it was good to check that off the list. This place deserves its #1 rating on TripAdvisor. The meat is cooked perfectly. The chef even told us that cooking game meat requires a different skill than beef. Cows are all killed at the same age so the meat is consistent but game is hunted and they could be any age. A young springbok will have different meat texture to a fully grown springbok so it’s up to the chef to feel out how it should be cooked and these guys are damn good at doing it. Highly recommended.

 

You May Also Like

• Garden Route Roadtrip: Addo to Plettenberg Bay
• Garden Route Roadtrip: Oudtshoorn to Hermanus
• 48 Hours In Paradise Along The Garden Route (And Bloukrans)
• Cape Town to Namibia Overland: Etosha National Park

I really wanted to see some critters on this trip and since we had purchased The Wild Card, which gave us free entry to all of the National Parks in ZA, Addo was on the list. We booked a place for two nights and found ourselves in a wonderful thatch roofed duplex with a view of the game reserve. We entered the reserve from the South gate and had to drive 37 km in an hour to make it before they closed the gate in 1 hour to the rest camp. The speed limit in the park is 40 km so you do the math. We’re cruising along when all of the sudden we spot a herd of elephants on another road so of course we took a detour. I pulled over to observe when a large bull started walking our way. I didn’t know what to do so I threw the car into reverse and started to back up. Ambereen was telling me to stop. There was another care backing up too so it got confusing! I did stop and the bull walked right towards us.

We ended up booking a morning game drive. It was cool but pricey and we later found out that we could have hired a Ranger to drive with us in our vehicle for a private drive at a fraction of the cost. Oh well, not everything we do ends up perfect just so you know. We did see some cool things including two lions who were lounging around the road.

After deciding to go on our own game drives we ended up at a watering hole (known as a pan) where a herd of elephant were hanging out. We parked and just watched for about an hour as people came and went until we were alone with many elephant. A few came up behind us along a path leading the the pan and we were surprised at how close they came to the car. We saw lots a babies including one who used the sign as a scratching post. Behavior he learned from his mom.

Two males ended up locking tusks right behind the car and I had to move or we could have been crushed!

Article source: http://wherethehelliszig.blogspot.com/2014/01/addo-elephant-park.html

Related

I really wanted to see some critters on this trip and since we had purchased The Wild Card, which gave us free entry to all of the National Parks in ZA, Addo was on the list. We booked a place for two nights and found ourselves in a wonderful thatch roofed duplex with a view of the game reserve. We entered the reserve from the South gate and had to drive 37 km in an hour to make it before they closed the gate in 1 hour to the rest camp. The speed limit in the park is 40 km so you do the math. We’re cruising along when all of the sudden we spot a herd of elephants on another road so of course we took a detour. I pulled over to observe when a large bull started walking our way. I didn’t know what to do so I threw the car into reverse and started to back up. Ambereen was telling me to stop. There was another care backing up too so it got confusing! I did stop and the bull walked right towards us.

We ended up booking a morning game drive. It was cool but pricey and we later found out that we could have hired a Ranger to drive with us in our vehicle for a private drive at a fraction of the cost. Oh well, not everything we do ends up perfect just so you know. We did see some cool things including two lions who were lounging around the road.

After deciding to go on our own game drives we ended up at a watering hole (known as a pan) where a herd of elephant were hanging out. We parked and just watched for about an hour as people came and went until we were alone with many elephant. A few came up behind us along a path leading the the pan and we were surprised at how close they came to the car. We saw lots a babies including one who used the sign as a scratching post. Behavior he learned from his mom.

Two males ended up locking tusks right behind the car and I had to move or we could have been crushed!

Day 14 Addo Elephant National Park. This unique Eastern Cape park is home to one of the densest concentrations of African elephants on earth as well as boasting the ‘Big Seven’(elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, southern right whale and great white shark) as Addo is a land and marine park.
Optional Activities: Night Game Drive with SANP.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

15th December 2013
The drive to Addo Elephant Park was a normal drive for South Africa,  sometimes the roads were bumpy sometimes the  able roads were great, I will say that there are lots of road works going on here in South Africa.

On the way to Addo Elephant Park we saw the disparity between rich and poor, on one side of the road there was some Mc Mansions and the other basically sticks covered with plastic tarps. What really amazed me was from talking to Michael, (the fountain of knowledge on all things Germany) I learnt that Germany has a population of just over 81million with a total size of 357,000klm square , whilst South Africa has just over 51 million people and has a total size of 1.22 million klm’s square and Australia has a population of just under 23 million and has a total size of 7.692 million klm’s square. When I think about the numbers I wonder how it seems so many people here live in such poverty.

We were really lucky to get to do a game drive in Otis as apparently large vehicles are usually restricted in the areas they can access in Addo Elephant National Park, nice work Owen.

We saw a bull elephant hogging a man made waterhole, he had his trunk stuck over the water inlet  and was sucking up the water as it appeared. He would not share with the nearby zebra, but as an elephant herd came over he let them drink. The elephant family was almost running to get to the water, and when they reached it the babies climbed into the shallow pool to play around. This was followed by some rolling around on the ground as the adults grazed. Very cute!

We then went to a picnic area for lunch, it was fenced off for safety. Rimson produced hotdogs for us, which were very popular. While we were having lunch we were joined by a few Red Beaked Francolin, I tried to feed Christina to one, but Christina resisted.

After lunch we continued on our game drive through the park, we saw the usual suspects – zebra, kudu, impala as well as lots more elephants – great! As we headed towards the boundary of Addo Park we saw a very large bull elephant with a huge set of tusks standing alone in the distance in a grassy area. We waited and watched and were very lucky, as he chose to walk towards us, and then pass on by, so we all got a fantastic view of him. He had a tracking collar on, and Owen said he was probably introduced to improve the gene pool, as Addo’s elephants have recovered from near extinction and have small tusks due to their genetics. The Elephants were considered pests by the Orange Farmers, so they hired a hunter to kill them all, only 16 survived in 1920 now its estimated the population is around 450 to 500 elephants.

Owen told us an interesting story about what can happen when to male Kudu’s decide to have a tussle over the ladies… sometimes their horns get tangled up and then if they can’t get them unlocked  they will die like that. So whilst were on the topic of the males of the species fighting for the females attention, we saw a male ostrich trying to win over a very special lady, but she couldn’t care less in fact she kept running away. I gave him my advice but alas he wasn’t listening he was to busy dancing and then running after her.

We were supposed to stay in the National Park Campsite  but they were fully booked, so we went to the Aardvark Backpackers just outside the park boundary.
We camped again!!! believe it or not, there were no upgrades available. It was the last night for several family members (Simone and Jan, Diane and Christina, Hartwig and Ulla), so we had a special dinner and some speeches, very sad but we have some great memories of all of them.

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Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation

Go to:My Addo

© Elephant at Gorah Lodge
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Gorah Private Camp has only 11 tented suits, and is the only private concession and Camp situated in the middle of the famous Addo Elephant National Park, home to the Big 5, and the densest population of elephants on earth.  Now the third largest national park in South Africa, Addo Elephant National Park has expanded to conserve a wide diversity of biodiversity, landscapes, fauna and flora. Addo covers about 180 000 hectares (444 700 acres) and includes the Bird and St Croix Island groups.

The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only sixteen elephants remained in the area. Today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 550 elephants, lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. And their Addo has only just begun, with plans to expand the Park into a 264 000 hectare (652 300 acre) mega-park.
In addition, plans include the proposed proclamation of a 120 000 ha (296 500 acre) marine reserve that includes islands that are home to the world’s largest breeding populations of Cape gannets and second largest breeding population of African penguins.

© Gorah Accommodation Tent Exterior© Gorah Accommodation Tent Exterior© Lion in front of Gorah House© Gorah Verandah© Gorah Tented Suite© Gorah Tented Suite© Gorah Tented Suite Bathroom© Gorah Entrance © Gorah Sundowners© Wildlife at Gorah © Wildlife at Gorah © Wildlife view from your suite at Gorah http://gorah.hunterhotels.com

Article source: http://www.travelandtradesouthafrica.com/2013/12/private-safari-in-addo-elephant-park.html

Posted By Brendan van Son+ on Dec 4, 2013 | 2 comments

After spending a couple weeks exploring the Garden Coast of South Africa and being completely surprised by what I was seeing (in a good way), I made my way inland towards one of South Africa’s lesser travelled parks, Addo Elephant National Park.

Addo Elephant National Park, as one could assume from the name of the park, is famous for it’s elephants.  Now, obviously, there are plenty of elephants in South Africa, but what makes these special is their colour.  The elephants in Addo coat themselves in the red earth of the region to give them a beautiful colour of red rather than the typical grey.  My luck, however, in finding elephants was quite bad.  I saw a couple in a heavily forested area, but had to move on for safety reasons.  I had better luck with other animals, however.  I saw a caracal which was maybe my favourite sighting my whole time in South Africa.  I also managed to see some more typical wildlife like Kudu, Zebra, and some warthogs.

Following my self-drive safari in Addo Elephant National Park, I headed back down to the sea to the Wild Coast.  In coming episodes, I continue to skirt down the Wild Coast, and explore more of South Africa.

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Gorah Private Camp has only 11 tented suits, and is the only private concession and Camp situated in the middle of the famous Addo Elephant National Park, home to the Big 5, and the densest population of elephants on earth.  Now the third largest national park in South Africa, Addo Elephant National Park has expanded to conserve a wide diversity of biodiversity, landscapes, fauna and flora. Addo covers about 180 000 hectares (444 700 acres) and includes the Bird and St Croix Island groups.

The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only sixteen elephants remained in the area. Today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 550 elephants, lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. And their Addo has only just begun, with plans to expand the Park into a 264 000 hectare (652 300 acre) mega-park.
In addition, plans include the proposed proclamation of a 120 000 ha (296 500 acre) marine reserve that includes islands that are home to the world’s largest breeding populations of Cape gannets and second largest breeding population of African penguins.

© Gorah Accommodation Tent Exterior© Gorah Accommodation Tent Exterior© Lion in front of Gorah House© Gorah Verandah© Gorah Tented Suite© Gorah Tented Suite© Gorah Tented Suite Bathroom© Gorah Entrance © Gorah Sundowners© Wildlife at Gorah © Wildlife at Gorah © Wildlife view from your suite at Gorah http://gorah.hunterhotels.com

Our Garden Route Roadtrip #4: On Safari in Addo Elephant Park

Written by: louise

Posted on Friday, December 6, 2013

This morning we’re heading back to Africa with the next part of our journey along South Africa’s Garden Route.  It seems all the more poignant after last night’s news of the sad passing of South Africa’s greatest inspiration, Nelson Mandela.  This beautiful county held a very special place in his heart as it does mine, and he was prepared to fight to make it a better place for all. I truly hope that his legacy will be for his ideals, hopes and dreams to live on in peace.

Going on safari is a very special experience for Mr B and I.  We spent many a day exploring the Kruger Park in the first years of our relationship on our regular trips to South Africa, and we spent part of our honeymoon in a nomadic tented camp in Kenya’s Masai Mara.  I could, quite happily live in the bush. We knew, in comparison to previous our safari’s, the River Bend Lodge reserve is small, and located in a fairly developed part of South Africa where we were never far from hints of civilisation – a railway, electricity pylon, or farm.  This time was undoubtedly a different experience, but nonetheless very special.

Over our two-night stay we managed to squeeze in four game drives – two early morning and two late afternoon drives with drinks overlooking the bushveld at sundown.  Our 4×4 was driven by expert game ranger Steve, whose talent was not just his incredible knowledge and passion for the wildlife, but his ability to keep us entertained with his driving skills!  The reserve is home to a large herd of elephants, who the rangers had heard were making their way into the wider park where they are free to roam, so that evening we played a game of hide and seek on our game drive following the herd along the river until eventually we caught up with them grabbing an evening snack in a clearing at the foot of the mountains.  Steve expertly navigated the 4×4 through the herd until we were surrounded on all sides before he announced this would be a great place to jump out and enjoy a drink.  Although we stayed close to the vehicle, being out in the open with this majestic and graceful animals was such a treat. There was one baby in particular who loved showing off in front of the camera!

The next morning we went searching for the shy and solitary rhino.  River Bend is taking part in Addo’s wider conservancy projects and it was great to hear of some great successes in this part of South Africa when in other parts of the country this prehistoric animal is suffering such a dramatic decline.  We got lucky with an incredible rhino sighting out in the open, starting a few 100 metres away he gently strolled past our vehicle with nothing more than a convincing glare.  For such an endangered, and extremely shy animal it was an amazing experience!  Just a few minutes later as we were driving into the mountains, I had my eyes closed enjoying a moment of warm sunshine, when there was an almighty commotion in the car!  I opened my eyes just in time to see this huge black shape dart in front of us and clatter into the scrub below – a startled rhino whose morning nap we must have disturbed!  As we reached the top of the mountain we were treated to breakfast with the most incredible view – this little wooden lookout was the perfect spot!

After a much needed relaxing massage (game drives are bumpy!), that afternoon we headed off in search of another of the Big Five; lion.  The reserve has three lions – two brothers and a sister – who often come together after a kill and we had heard that they had done just that the night before.  It wasn’t the first time I’ve been so close to a lion, but these kings of the bush never cease to amaze.  From sleeping lions, to playful pussy cats, we spent a good while just watching and enjoying as the sun set around us.

For our last morning drive, Steve had a special treat lined up!  After a short drive through the neighbouring citrus groves, we arrived at a private concession where we would get to walk with giraffes!  These are one of my favourite animals, I just love their elegance and cheeky faces!  In the low scrub, you’d think it would be easy to spot these long-necked creatures but it took a while of false sightings – mainly skittish zebra and antelope – before we came across a small herd of mothers and babies.  Parking a safe distance away we walked through the bush, following their lead, perhaps only 10-20 metres away.  It was incredible!

If you’d like to find out more about the Save the Rhino Project click here.  You can also find out about SANParks conservation programs and Unite Against Poaching here.

Join me next week for the penultimate leg of our journey, stopping at the stunning Plettenberg Bay.  Follow our route here.

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Photography: Louise Andre Beukes for b.loved

Categories: travel honeymoons · Tags: addo elephant park, game drive, garden route, garden route road trip, honeymoon, review, river bend lodge, safari, south africa, sponsored posts, travel

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