Addo Elephant National Park (Eastern Cape, South Africa)

April 7^th, 2011 (January 2011) – After Graaf-Reinet we were off to Addo Elephant National Park for two nights. We’d heard there might be elephants there. Turns out the rumors are true. I saw them with mine own eyes. When the park was established in 1931 there were only 11 of them left. Now they estimate there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 450. Dumbo lives....for now.

We arrived mid-morning, set up our tent near the park HQ (Addo Rest Camp), and restocked our supplies in the ‘town’ of Addo (if a petrol station, a market, and a liquor store qualify as a town) and spent our afternoon exploring the park in our VW Polo Vivo (Safari Edition). The park is roughly 164,000 hectares and split into three sections, one of which is where you find the majority of the larger animals. Over the course of two days we managed to see a variety of fauna to include buffalo, warthogs, elephants, flightless dung beetles, ostriches, jackals, a spotted hyena, lions (sort of), kudus, leopard tortoises, zebras, and a whole poop ton of birds.

Our first day was not such an auspicious beginning. The closing time for the park depends upon the time of year and duration of sunlight. On that day the park gates closed at 6:30 pm. We didn’t make it. Why? Well, the late afternoon/evening is the best time to spot wildlife and we got a little caught up. I blame the lions. And we (as in me) did something really stupid. While heading back we noticed said lions in a clearing up ahead but believed erroneously that the area in question was reserved for guests of a tented camp and not open to just anyone.