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The weather was overcast, drizzling and cold when we got to the Matyholweni Gate in the Colchester Section of the Addo Elephant National Park. We were informed that no caravans, buses or motorbikes are allowed to travel between this camp and the Main Camp due to steep inclines. Luckily Ufudu has 4×4 capabilities so we had no problem. The Matyholweni Camp has no camping facility but Main Camp still had 2 tent sites available. Tent sites are smaller than caravan sites so we were advised to check it out before deciding to check in.

We took a leisurely drive to Main Camp and stopped along the way to have lunch, one of the advantages of being in Ufudu! We spotted 3 elephant bulls along the way, but that was it as far as elephants go! There were zebra, red hartebeest and kudu as well but they were mostly lying down, apparently due to the cold weather.

Bull elephant

Of course a visit to Addo is not complete without seeing and learning about the Addo Flightless Dung Beetle. Their conservation status is listed as ‘vulnerable’ due to the fact that they have only one nesting sequence per year during which a single offspring is produced. Being flightless they also face many environmental threats, one of them being run over by cars!

Addo Flightless Dung Beetle in the road

We were able to see a wind turbine near the Koega Harbour in the distance, through the haze.

Wind turbine

We were alerted to the presence of lions at the Hapoor Dam so we went to have a look before we got to Main Camp. There were two males sleeping. Very boring, really, and people just sit there for hours watching them do nothing…

Unperturbed by all the attention

Dreaming while soaking up the warmth of the sun

They were still there the next afternoon but at least now they were showing signs of life.

What big teeth you have!

The birding was more rewarding.

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Juvenile Pale Chanting Goshawk. We initially got excited, thinking it was a new species for our list…

Speckled Mousebird

We eventually got to Main Camp and chose the largest of the available tent sites. We had to leave the trailer in the parking lot but at least Ufudu and Suzi fitted snugly. It was not too bad and we were very happy to be able to stay for two nights.

Squeezed into tent site (T9)

The night was really cold but we were brave and got out rather early the next day. It was worth it. The photos are not too great due to low light/overcast conditions but hey, we had some great sightings.

Denham’s Bustard

A very cold and miserable Southern Black Korhaan

Bokmakierie

Red-necked Spurfowl

Black-backed Jackal

There were numerous Warthog and all were in very good condition but very light in colour, unlike the normal grey that we are used to. We suspect it is because of the mud they have been rolling in. Warthog were apparently only re-introduced to the Park during the 1990’s.

Warthog

Main Camp itself is really great and we spent quite some time working our way through all the facilities. They cater for the whole family with facilities such as a bird hide, an interpretive centre, a play area for little people, a wheelchair friendly discovery trail, Cattle Baron restaurant, etc.

Ulwazi Interpretive Centre with Hapoor’s head mounted on the wall

‘Elephant’ gym

Milkweed Bug on Ivy-leaved Geranium seen on the discovery trail

We also saw two bachelor buffalo and a small herd of elephant. By all accounts we were lucky because everyone we chatted to said they had no good sightings!

After 2 nights we moved on to the Kabouga Section of the Park. We checked in at the Mvubu rustic camp for 2 nights. It was stunning. Just us, no electricity and a pipe shower (again). I had a friend years ago that had the theory: if you encounter something for the first time, you will encounter it again within 48 hours. She was right again!

The Mvubu camp is situated on the banks of the Sundays River which was very murky. Roger thinks it is because the Sundays River is supplemented by water pumped from the Orange River.

Lookout over the Sundays River at Mvubu campsite

From Mvubu camp we went on a 4×4 trail up the Zuurberg Mountain. We did the full trail a number of years ago, all the way to the Darlington Dam. This time we only went to the top of the pass and then back down to our camp. It took us the best part of 7 hours to complete!

Very pregnant Black-backed Jackal encountered on the 4×4 trail

Suzi negotiating a rocky river bed

Ancient cycads encountered high up on the trail

Example of folds in the mountain

Lunch on the run

View from the top of the Zuurberg

The evenings at Mvubu camp were glorious. Starry skies, a Scops Owl calling incessantly, wood fire burning….

When we left the park after our last night we saw an excellent example of a dyke, which is a vertical intrusion of magma. The surrounding softer structures are all weathered away, leaving only the dyke standing.

Dyke outside park gate. Looks like a built wall!

Next stop Port Elizabeth where Kevin will be joining us for a few days.

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Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation

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Emfuleni Corridor Tourism (ECTOUR) has welcomed Addo Tourism as its newest member, joining the Tsitsikamma Tourism Association, Kouga Baviaans Surf and Safari, Karoo Heartland Marketing Association and the Wild Coast Holiday Association. This came shortly after ECTOUR’s appointment of Jonker Fourie as their new CEO and marks an exciting first few months in 2014 for the organisation. Addo Tourism is made up of tourism products situated around the Addo Elephant National Park, the Sundays River Valley (Addo and Kirkwood area), the Zuurberg Mountains and Colchester at the Sundays River Mouth.

“ECTOUR’s roll is not just in marketing the Eastern Cape as a prime holiday destination in South Africa, but also to act as an umbrella body for private tourism associations within the provinces’ different tourism areas or nodes,” says Fourie, who has a background in destination marketing and tourist guiding; is an accomplished travel blogger and the recently announced 2013 Port Elizabeth Geocacher of the Year. “Most of the work done to get Addo Tourism on board was done by my predecessor and my next challenge is to encourage and facilitate the formation of similar private tourism marketing associations in those areas where there aren’t any yet.”

Dewald Niemann, Chairman of ECTOUR, is very excited about the new addition to the ECTOUR family. “With Addo Tourism joining us it means ECTOUR becomes more representative of private tourism products in the province. More so, the Sundays River Valley is home to one of the most popular tourism destinations in the Eastern Cape and being able to incorporate the area in our marketing mix allows for an even more appealing Eastern Cape offer,” Niemann said, referring to the Addo Elephant National Park.

ECTOUR and its individual members will be participating in the upcoming WTM Africa and Indaba tourism trade shows in Cape Town and Durban respectively and continues to spread the word that the Eastern Cape offers visitors an affordable destination with beautiful scenery, exciting experiences, game reserves, friendly people and mouth-watering food.

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Addo is the 3rd largest park in South Africa.  It stretches from the semi-arid Karoo in the North, over beautiful mountains, follows the Sunday’s River and ends at the coast.

 

It is home to over 550 elephants, lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, variety of antelope, zebra and the flightless dung beetle.

 

The main camp has beautiful chalets, some overlooking the great plains where elephants can often be spotted. The is a lookout over a waterhole that is floodlit at night.

 

It is well worth a visit and the close-up experience to the gentle giants are magnificent.

 

 

 

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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 […]

Port Elizabeth Budget Accommodation

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wildlife photo safari -Addo Elephant Park

March 25, 2014

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Posted in All Things African | Tagged addo elephant park, elephant, photo safari, wildlife. game |

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 Part 2: Addo to Plettenberg Bay
• Garden Route Roadtrip Part 3: Oudtshoorn to Hermanus
• Garden Route Roadtrip Part 4: Cape Town Round 2
• 48 Hours In Paradise Along The Garden Route (And Bloukrans)