The Addo Elephant Park

Addo Elephant Park

The Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape boasts an area of some 180 000 hec­tares, mak­ing it the third largest national park in the whole of South Africa. It is situ­ated less than an hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth and includes an intriguing vari­ety of land­scapes, fauna and flora. The Bushman’s and Sundays River val­leys tra­verse its land­scape, as do the mag­ni­fi­cent Zuurberg Mountains. This nat­ural beauty is, no doubt, one of the many draw-cards to the more than 140 000 vis­it­ors that the park wel­comes every year.

Elephants are a prized pos­ses­sion, hav­ing been hunted for their valu­able ivory for cen­tur­ies. In 1931, this area of the Eastern Cape was declared a national park with the express pur­pose of pro­tect­ing a dwind­ling ele­phant pop­u­la­tion, which had dropped to fewer than 20 indi­vidu­als. Due to the ongo­ing con­ser­va­tion efforts and breed­ing ini­ti­at­ives of Addo, this park now boasts more the 550 indi­vidual elephants!

In addi­tion to the mighty ele­phant, Addo is also home to the Cape Buffalo, Black Rhino, warthog, ostrich, leo­pard, lion, zebra, kudu and a host of other fas­cin­at­ing species.

Addo Flightless Dung Beetle

The Addo Flightless Dung Beetle has intrigued trav­el­lers for years. This pecu­liar beetle spends its life rolling ele­phant dung into per­fect balls, which it uses as a source of food. Avid bird-watchers will be well-rewarded as they keep their eyes peeled for some of the 170 dif­fer­ent bird spe­cies found in the park. These include dif­fer­ent weavers, her­ons, red bish­ops, coots and terrapins.

Addo offers a vari­ety of activ­it­ies that are suit­able for dif­fer­ent age groups and phys­ical cap­ab­il­it­ies. These include:

• Guided or self-driven game drives at dif­fer­ent times of the day so that vis­it­ors have the oppor­tun­ity to see the widest range of animals
• Horse rides along gor­geous trails – the ideal pace at which to enjoy the countryside
• Various hik­ing trails
• The Tree Dassie Trail
• 4 x 4 trails
• Bird watch­ing
• Picnicking and bar­be­cuing near one of the pop­u­lar water­ing holes

A Herd of Elephants

Addo Elephant National Park is suited to the influx of local and inter­na­tional tour­ists that enter its gates every day, week and year. In order to ensure that vis­it­ors have an authen­tic African exper­i­ence coupled with the lux­ury and con­veni­ence that makes Addo so mem­or­able, the park has an a-la-carte res­taur­ant and a curio shop, a refresh­ing swim­ming pool, bar­be­cue and pic­nic area and a fuel sta­tion for ulti­mate con­veni­ence. The under­ground hide and lookout plat­forms at the water­ing hole set the wild­life view­ing exper­i­ence of Addo apart.

Addo Elephant National Park puts the con­ser­va­tion and pro­tec­tion of the South African fauna and flora first, mak­ing it a stun­ning tour­ist des­tin­a­tion in its own right.

Useful Links

Addo Elephant Park
Addo Elephant Park Accommodation
Eastern Cape Game Reserves
Eastern Cape Weddings
South Africa Game Reserves