Vasta poissa olen viimein perillä: Addo Elephant National Park

We drove all the way to Addo village stopping at Jeffrey's Bay for a little coffee. It got dark on the way but we found it to Gerald's Gift Guesthouse which we had booked earlier. And wow what a guesthouse it was!! It almost felt like we had entered some sort of a British royal summer house, with an amazing garden, the most gracious and welcoming hostess Sue and nicely decorated rooms with everything we could've needed. The guesthouse also offered complimentary sherry, a common television room and the best breakfast we could imagine: there was always fresh fruit salad, different types of muesli and yogurt, bread, croissants, muffins, coffee with warm milk and juices. And on top, there was the warm part of the brekkie: eggs (as you wanted them), tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon etc. In the Asian backpacker places the complimentary breakfasts were usually just toast with butter and jam, so this felt very luxurious :D Sue was very very helpful and always gave us advice and tips and even helped us out with out flat tire (more on that later). We warmly recommend anyone visiting Addo to stay in Gerald's Gift!

So after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast we headed out for our first day at Addo NP. Addo is known for its elephants and is often called ”Addo Elephant Park”. It's also home to the endangered and endemic flightless dung beetle. There are a few lions, multitude of elephants, zebras, warthogs, different types of birds, hyenas etc. We wanted to see them all of course ;)

On the first day we circled mostly around the North part of the park. We quickly met a few zebras, a million funny looking warthogs with little piglets too and many many beautiful kudus with their amazing antlers. During the first hour we also found us some elephants! A herd of females with a little one too! The elephants are always impressive to see and these were walking just by the road. We stopped to look at them for a while and admired them crossing the road. Funny part was when the little one was crossing and one of the older females tried to ”divert us” by starting to walk towards the car and flapping its ears. When the little one was safely over the road, she followed hastily.

The whole area was pretty dry so we would always stop at the waterholes to see if any animals were drinking. At that specific one there was no one there but just a hundred meters or so away there was a female lion chilling in the grass!! She was alone and very still, looking around a bit and then put her head down as she was about to go to sleep. Next day we heard from a guide that the oldest female lion in the park had died that night, she had been badly wounded by some young males and was spotted spending her last hours near a waterhole. I guess it was the same lioness we saw.

On that day we also spotted a dung beetle which are extremely hard to see (they are mostly digging inside the elephant dung) and a buffalo with its great horns (not too hard to spot as they are pretty big!). Also, one small thing we met was a mongoose, hunting in the dry savanna. I'm sure meeting the elephants and the lion was everyone's highlight of the day.

The less of a highlight was the flat tire...after a few hours of driving, our back wheel said ”flapflapflap” and was completely empty. We were stranded in the middle of the park and weren't quite sure what to do: we had a spare and the necessary tools to change it but we were not allowed to leave the vehicle :D The park is full of dangerous animals and getting out of the car without permission was punishable by a hefty fine. So we called the park entrance and they promised to send rangers to help us out. But before the rangers made it, a nice handsome South African man stopped by. He introduced himself as a official guide and offered to help. Changing the wheel when you know there can be lions anywhere close by can be nerve-wrecking. It's even worse when it happens in the dark, but more about that later ;) Luckily the wheel was quickly changed as we kept watch for the lions. But we did face a dilemma: should we still drive around (without a spare wheel) or give up for that day and try to fix the tire somewhere? After lunch we took the risk and did continue for a while until it was time to call it a day.

Our dear guesthouse owner Sue helped us out with the tire and suggested we drive to Kirkwood (a town some 40 km away) to find a garage. So Chris and I did that after another delicious breakfast. It was an easy task: the guy at the garage took our wheel, checked it and said ”no problem”. After 15 minutes we had a well-working wheel in its right place and all this for 40 rand (2,6 euros) :D

We picked Pia up and headed to the South of the park this time. We quickly spotted a black-backed jackal that was not afraid of us at all. It reminded me of a fox we met in Ushuaia back in the day. Multiple kudus and other antelopes were roaming the open savanna and suddenly there they were: two secretary birds!! These strange, primitive looking birds were something I had really wanted to see. They were walking around like the new age dinosaurs they are, not bothered by anyone or anything. Awesome! We also met more elephants and other old friends. It was a good day.

For the evening we had booked a night drive! One has to leave the park by 18.00 but in a guided tour you can stay longer and also see the night animals. It was cool to hop in a huge and high open vehicle and just follow where the guide would show his torch. At the very beginning he was joking that the guide's worst nightmare is to have a flat tire in the dark when there are lions around. Of course this is exactly what happened: after an hour we heard a long constant hiss coming from our back wheel. One tire wouldn't have been a problem but actually two of them broke. ”Everyone out of the vehicle, we will have to change the tire”, was the command. And there we are, a group of ~15 in the pitch black dark and then we hear the lions roar! What an impressive sound. And they were not far either...two males, says the guide. These are the two that we were trying to find. Yet again, luckily, we were quickly ready and hopped back in the safety of the vehicle. Unfortunately we never found those two lions, but weren't unhappy that they did not find us ;)

On our night drive we saw multiple scrub hares (the very typical looking little rabbitsies) but also the funkiest looking spring hares! They are not at all like rabbits but more like gerbils. They hop with their hind legs and use their long tail as an aid. You can check more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_springhare. One of the coolest finds was the brown hyena! This shy fellow is apparently the hardest thing to spot in the whole park. As a solitary creature, it differs from the spotted hyena who lives in a pack and there weren't many in the whole NP.

After our night drive we had a late dinner and the next day we had to say good bye to Sue and the amazing Gerald's Gift Guesthouse. It was time to head out to Tsitsikamma NP!