Whales, Elephants, Zebras and Warthogs in South Africa’s Capes.
By Florin R. Ferrs
After a week in Capetown, eating Cape Malay curries, browsing in the African markets, going up Table Top and hitting the bars along Long Street, I was quite ready to hit the road.
You can’t come to South Africa and not do a Safari. So I decided to visit the South African National Parks website where I booked a cute bush bungalow in Addo Elephant Park. Addo is not quite as large as Kruger National Park, but it’s quite impressive in its own right, with herds of wild elephants, zebras, warthogs, lions, cape buffalo and even whales and sharks just off its protected beaches. Addo’s main entrance is located about an hour from Port Elizabeth, approximately a ten hour drive from Cape Town, in the Eastern Cape region.
I consult my guidebook and learn that fortunately the 10 hour drive is chock full of South African touristic wonders: The Cape Wine Region, the whale watching coast around Walker Bay and the town of Hermanus, the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Alguhas, and the “Garden Route”, that links several beach towns from Mossel Bay to the Surfing community of Jeffrey’s Bay.
Posh Stellenbosh
I have to check out early in order to make it to Jeffrey’s bay on the Eastern Cape by dusk. Fortunately the friendly lady from The Accommodation Shop, who’s in charge of my Cape Town apartment, doesn’t mind showing up at 7am to collect the keys and return my deposit.
An hour later I am driving trough vineyards. I find the sign for Stellenbosh, the jewel of the Cape Wine region. You could be in Napa or Sonoma but with Dutch colonial buildings instead of Spanish. Dramatic mountains rise above a white washed town that is full of trendy shops, cafes and bakeries. I sit al fresco and watch the beautiful people while sipping excellent South African wine. Their reds are world class and their olives are even better.
I head out of town trough vineyards and pine forests before reaching the coast at Hermanus, a town famous for its whale population. Southern blue whales have found refuge there, returning every year to have their young. I see the whale signs and expect a faint puff of water in the horizon, before I realize that what I thought were rocks close to the shore, were actually several blue whales. A group of tourists screamed with delight as a mother whale and her calf swam so close to the rocky shore that they could almost reach out to pet them. Many countries promise a lot to tourists, but very few deliver like South Africa does. I was gob smacked and in total awe before these majestic creatures.
Video: Whale Watching in Hermanus South Africa
A Whale of a time in Hermanus
After driving trough interminable wheat fields, ostrich farms and sheep estates, I finally hit the coast at Mossel Bay. This part of South Africa reminds me of California; beach communities dotting the coastline for miles until the city of Port Elizabeth: Knysha, Plattenberg Bay, Jeffrey’s Bay.
I reach Jeffrey’s Bay in mid spring so the town has an off season feel to it. The big surf tournaments are in the southern winter (July), so the beach bars are empty and so are the surf shops. My Bed Breakfast is run by Zimbabwean refugees. Nice couple, but you can tell that they have been left behind holding the flag for Queen and country. Serving marmite on toast and HP sause with their breakfast eggs. They are a pair of holdouts from a bygone era, perhaps struggling to find a place in the new South Africa. And they are a reminder that the eastern Cape was settled by the British, and that I have left behind all the gorgeous Dutch colonial architecture of the Western Cape, for the Eastern Cape’s red brick of its British style homes.
Addo Elephant Park
I reach Addo Elephant Park early the next day. My bungalow won’t be ready until the afternoon so I sign up for the noon Safari. We will be riding a ten seater Range Rover with open sides and a rag top.
Our guide is a chubby, enthusiastic, Boer with great knowledge of the park’s animals. I have to pinch myself, even the guide’s accent is perfectly cliche. We’re on Safari in South Africa! Big adventure awaits!
Video: Addo Elephant Park Safari South Africa
The gates open and our Land Rover roars inside the game area. The animals stir out of the bush around noon to hit the water holes. Soon we are surrounded by a pack of Elephants hogging a water hole, while Zebras and warthogs watch and wait for their turn. I count the seconds after seeing our first warthogs before someone yells “Hakuna Matata”, it’s the guide. I am in Safari heaven, surrounded by wildlife, a million miles from home, on an open top Range Rover. Yes, South Africa delivers, and then some.
Addo Zebras
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