Our hostess at River Front Estate, Lisa Ferreira, told us about a back entrance to the park, just across the road. However, once we were in the park, a ranger told us that it was an illegal entry point. It is actually an access road for traffic to the other side of the park and they log your car in as you enter and then out again on the other side. So we needed to go to the main gate and register with our Wild Card
And, while spotting any game at first was slow, as the afternoon wore on we saw a large number of elephants, many with young, crossing the road. Such magnificent beasts. We also saw different antelopes, zebra, warthogs and, at Jack’s Picnic site where we stopped for a sandwich lunch, we saw lots of birds hoping for a crumb or two. We found our favourite hide, at Spekboom water hole, and sat for while, but nothing was coming to the waterhole at that time of day
We stopped for lunch in the reserved area at Jack's Picnic Site, which is closed off from the rest of the park
it was very quiet and we were surrounded by amazingly tame birds, hoping that we'd drop some crumbs
Cape robin-chat (cossypha caffra)
Spectacled weaver male (ploceus ocularis)
and his mate, a Spectacled weaver hen
Cape Francolin, aka Cape Spurfowl - Pternistis capensis
accompanied by a young kudu bull with newly sprouting horns
An elephant (Loxodonta africana), munching on a stick
The wrinkled skin of an African Elephant
An elephant using its trunk to reach for tender young leaves at the top of a bush
The baby elephant, about to stand up, next to an older sibling, while its mother grazes in the bush
An elephant gives another member of her herd a push at the Spekboom waterhole
A dung beetle rolling a ball of elephant dung. This is how life revolves
The elephants eat the seeds, drop them in their dung and the beetles bury the dung,
lay their eggs in it and so goes the circle of life
A small herd of elephants at the Spekboom waterhole
The cameras were red hot and, that night, John was busy transferring photographs onto the computer and editing
It was such a treat to be back at Addo. It had been a while
On day two, we rose at 6, had a quick, minimal, breakfast and by 7 we were off in the car and heading for waterholes
Leftovers at Domkrag water hole. The skull, spine and horns of a kudu bull. We didn't see any lions, but they are there
A grey heron doing its best to swallow a large fish
A Red hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus caama) with her very new calf, umbilical cord still attached
They were part of a group
of female Red hartebeest drinking at the Domkrag waterhole
The only jackal we saw, running away very quickly
A magnificent kudu bull browsing on a bush
A Burchell's Zebra mare
A herd of Burchell's zebra. They have shadow stripes between the black stripes
A warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) watches a Hadeda ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)
Burchell's Zebra mare
A female warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)
The early morning light is so clear and we certainly found photogenic subjects
We first visited the hide at Spekboom. It seemed very quiet
and then suddenly a bull elephant arrived and started to have a shower in the small waterhole
followed by a herd. It was immediately muddied as they frolicked and stamped and squirted water all over themselves
But as more joined in, it became very muddy, so they had a mud bath
Out of my way! An elephant gives another member of her herd a push at the Spekboom waterhole
There was lots of rumbling aggression
Baby Shower. A baby elephant bathing with its mother and the herd
mud bath
Bathing the baby - Another new baby elephant bathing with the family
Mud Shower - A bull elephant showers himself with mud
A warthog on its knees, feeding
Tortoise in a hurry. An angulate tortoise (Chersina angulata) making good progress along a road
Then we went off to the larger Hapoor dam and there were even more elephants having drinks and baths
The animals tend to get lost in the thick bush in the midday heat and it is not worth staying
We had a great afternoon ‘at home’, reading, doing some washing
and just admiring the garden
Most of our photos were taken from windows in our car,
just a few are from viewpoints where, at your own risk, you can get out of your car
Move! One young bull elephant gives another a shove from behind at the Hapoor waterhole
Show some respect! A large female elephant looks at a calf which pushed its way past her
Going down the road to a waterhole, we suddenly saw a very large bull elephant walking up the road towards us, and we sat quietly. The boss! There was no way we could get past him, so John decided that it might be prudent to back away from him, as his ears were flapping a little – it can be a sign of tension or even aggression. And just us he was nearing us again, he veered off the road and disappeared into the bush
Friends - Two Burchell's Zebras
Stripes. A head on view of a Burchell's zebra
Big Ears. A baby elephant with ears extended, learning how to use his body!
Pachyderm Madonna. An elephant mother with her two children at a waterhole
A small herd of elephants in a very small waterhole
Home to make a simple Grabouw wors braai on our stoep, which we had with a very good Rhebokskloof red, The MGS 2012, which had been buried in our cellar and came with us on holiday. A blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, Shiraz, it improves as you enjoy it. There had been lots of cloud and we heard it might rain a little the next day. Mixed emotions on that one. That night, for the first time, it was cold
Next morning, we headed back to the park for our last full day, but, despite going back to all the popular places for animals, nothing was moving. John said they had gone away for the weekend; it was Friday after all. He was right, all the Ellies had packed their trunks and gone off to the beach for the weekend. Or, and this is Lynne's cockamamie theory, they can count to 7 so, every five days, they disappear when the weekenders descend on the park. We drove right down to the southern gate at about 11h30 and saw nothing, absolutely nothing, except bushes and a few animals in the distance, with the dunes and the Indian ocean in the background
then a red hartebeest bull browsing on a hill
And then we had a bit of an adventure. When we turned around to go back up the steep hill, suddenly there was an enormous brown bull elephant blocking the road with his bulk, moving his huge table top feet so, so slowly as he crept up the hill, it was almost a four time slow waltz he swayed so much. As the comic in the white VW van below, who had just come down, said to us as he passed, "you are now in for a long wait"
The ears were flapping and he kept turning round to see what we were doing. We were doing nothing, too timid to try to pass this beautiful beast! As he ascended, one footstep every 4 seconds, we allowed him lots of 'leg room' and followed slowly in fits and starts. It took us nearly 20 minutes to get to the top. You never want to anger or take on a huge elephant when driving a silver grey car. When he passed this blue car, he finally disappeared into the bush and we heaved a huge sigh of relief
We then visited several water holes and saw only a few zebra
Even at the hide only one elephant, not stopping, and a couple more on the road to the gate
Hartebeest, zebras and warthog at a Partial Exclusion waterhole,
designed to allow them safe drinking when elephants ravage their water sources
And the next morning we were off to Plettenberg Bay via Uitenhage
but before that we finished our visit with supper at the Cattle Baron in the Park (Click here)
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