September 1:3: Addo Elephant National Park

After leaving Dwesa Nature Reserve, I drove south along the coast to my final wildlife safari destination, Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province:

Addo was founded in 1931 in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The Park currently covers 633 square miles, third largest park in South Africa, and has proved to be very successful, currently supporting more than 600 elephants and a large number of other mammals, including lion, leopard (no cheetah), buffalo, and several antelope species.

As far as the landscape goes, honestly, it’s not the most spectacular compared to the other Parks I have visited. The Park is divided into several sections, including a coastal section that I did not visit, but I suspect is much like the other coastal Parks I have visited, and several inland sections that range from rolling hills to more rugged mountains covered by a mixture of shrubland (or thicket or bushveld as they call it, as it is mostly low stature shrubs and trees of varying densities and many of them covered with thorns – think Pinyon-Juniper woodlands of the southwest) and grasslands either in the uplands or in the valley bottom depressions that they call a “vlei” if it stays wet during the rainy season. Here are a few photos of the landscape:

Ok, the landscape may not be jaw-dropping beautiful, but boy-oh-boy did this Park live up to its namesake – elephants, elephants, and more elephants. As I said above, this Park is purported to have roughly 600 elephants, but on a single drive to 3 or 4 waterholes, I probably saw 200-300 individuals, and this was in just one section of the Park. There’s not a lot of other wildlife – a few small herds of buffalo and lots of zebras, warthogs, and greater kudus, but the incredible concentration of elephants was truly phenomenal. And did I ever tell you how much I enjoy watching elephants? They are always doing something interesting, especially interacting with each other. It reminded me a lot of when Nancy and I visited Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe last year and camped at waterholes and witnessed the amazing elephant jamboree there. Because this was my last wildlife safari park on this trip and because I love watching elephants, I put a lot of elephant footage in the composite video below, but I threw in a little footage of some other species and the landscape to make it more interesting and diverse. I also took lots of photos as well since it was my last viewing for most, if not all, of these species. See the photo gallery below for a sample.

For my first two nights, I camped at Addo Main Camp in the main section of the Park. Have I already told you how much I dislike South African Park campgrounds? They are paranoid about wild animals in the campgrounds, so the entire campgrounds are fenced into keep animals out and people in. They pack campsites together like sardines in a can, and the South Africa campers appear to like it this way – go figure? The campgrounds are always part of a larger compound that includes chalets of various luxuries, restaurants, shops, gas stations, etc. Basically, their “rest camps” are like little cities and there are people running around everywhere. In the campsites, you hear conversations on all sides. You get the picture! Not my kind of camping, but sometimes there is simply no better option and you have to accept it – as was the case here in the main camp of Addo (but see below). I so don’t like the campgrounds that I forgot to take a picture – sorry, my description above will have to suffice. Ok, enough of a rant.

For my third and last night, I abandoned the “big city” campground and splurged for a platform tent at a small camp called Spekboom located in the middle of the Park. With just 5 tents, each well spaced out and private, and situated adjacent to a water hole with elephants visiting all day and night and grumbling and trumpeting their presence, it was glorious. And I was the only one in the camp! Why didn’t I stay there all three nights? It cost twice as mch ($100 versus $50 per day), but it was well worth it. Here’s a photo of my tent nestled in the spekboom bushveld (note, spekboom is one of the dominant shrubs in this vegetation type):

Sadly, I’m leaving Addo and my last safari on this year’s trip – argh! Next stop, several coastal parks and reserves that are part of the Garden Route National Park on the Eastern Cape and then to Cape Town and my final destination. See you there.

WARNING! Here’s my very long composite video from Addo. You probably only want to watch this if you really love elephants like me and have some time on your hands to kill, perhaps as a substitute for a Netflix show. Sorry for the length but this was my last wildlife safari park on this year’s journey, so I went kind of crazy. Also, this Park was all about elephants, which I really love to watch, so there is a lot of elephant footage – I simply couldn’t help myself:

Addo Elephant National Park composite (55 minutes)

Photo Gallery:

New Species:

1. Cape crane
2. Blue-mantled crested flycatcher
3. Cape weaver
4. Spottedbacked weaver