Tracking Africa’s Big Five

We said a fond and emotional goodbye to David the next morning, and headed back towards Port Elizabeth. We were sorry to leave, but heartened by the idea of today being a real “vacation” day at Addo Elephant National Park. During the pleasant 3-hour drive we stopped at a typical South African service station for a restroom break and a thorough perusal of their snack food. We had missed breakfast, so we sampled the Ghost Pops maize snack and the Diddle Daddle caramel corn, but saved the rest for later, which would prove to be a very good decision.

We checked in at Africanos Country Estate and, Wow! It was as smart and stylish as they come. We had a wonderful lunch of chicken tikka wrap and a chicken sandwich in their pretty courtyard, and were then shown to our room, which was immense, and as good as anything in the Four Seasons/Le Meridien bracket.

We didn’t hang around, though. Addo was awaiting, and we still had a full four hours of daylight to play with. It would be our third “vacation” in 14 years, and we weren’t going to waste a moment!

We paid our entry fee at Addo and headed out under our own steam, and in less than a minute we saw what Simon thought was giant boulders in the distance, but our binoculars confirmed were elephants. Then we rounded a corner and spotted something freaky lumbering toward us, and just as we both said, “What is THAT”, we realized it was a warthog. Her babies came trotting up behind her.

Next we came up on a herd of Kudu, with huge ears and gentle eyes. Most were grazing or just standing there staring at us, but some of the young males were feeling their oats, and were having little sparring matches.

Soon after, we came upon a herd of around 60 elephants off to one side of the road. They were moving away from us, so we watched a closer group of about 8 or so, including babies and yearlings. Suddenly, the larger herd turned and came steamrolling across the veldt, oblivious to the road and traffic, and motored on into the distance. They ended up crossing the street right behind us, while cars and touring trucks were stopped along the road to watch them.

As they continued on, some of the babies were quite funny, running all over the place like toddlers do.

Meanwhile, the smaller group kept getting closer and closer until one of them could have reached out with its trunk and touched our car. Susan rolled up the window just in case it decided to pull her out and trample her.

In just a limited drive of, maybe, a fifth of the park, we saw zebra, mongoose, eland and tortoise. We also saw black-backed jackals feasting on the carcass of two Cape buffalo who had been killed the night before. They were ripping and eating quickly, and we would find out why on our game drive the next day.

We stayed in the park until closing time, then headed back to Africanos for a first-class dinner washed down with a nice bottle of wine, all for a total of R339 (about $35). An absolute bargain (the wine alone was R105). We were SO impressed with the value and quality of the resort and wished we could stay for a week.

The next morning we had a full-day guided tour booked for Addo and Schotia private game reserve. Our guide Zane (yes, another Zane!) picked us up at Africano’s, along with another couple, Johann and Wendy, from South Africa. We started at 9am in Addo and saw elephant, zebra, Cape buffalo, Red Hartebeest, Kudu, warthogs, dung beetles, and a puff adder.

Zane, an ex-schoolteacher, spent a lot of time explaining what we were seeing, which proved helpful when we stopped along one of the park’s roads to watch two dung beetles. The female was rolling a massive poo ball, but kept falling over on her back. Each time her husband looked like he was going to help her get back up, he fell over too.

She would get back up, crawl up the poo ball, turn upside down and start to roll it again, only to fall over seconds later. Zane explained it was the female’s job to roll the ball to some secret location, and the male was there for moral support. We weren’t sure if this couple was on their honeymoon, so they were new at bringing home a poo ball, but they just couldn’t stay upright. We laughed at their misfortune. A lot.

Zane drove us to Hapoor Dam, where we had seen jackals eating dead buffalo yesterday, and today one of the carcasses was nearly stripped clean, while a male lion was lying next to the other one, having eaten the whole back end. His buddy must have eaten the stripped carcass, because he was laying feet-up a bit further back, sleeping it off in the sun. A jackal was pulling the last bits off the ribs.

We moved on south, heading toward the Colchester area, and saw our first ostriches, and a secretary bird.

When we reached Schotia we were treated to a nice lunch of chicken a la king, then toured the park in two parts. First, the main part of the private reserve, which included giraffes, hippos, crocs, wildebeest, impala, springboks, nyla, water-bucks, kudu, Cape Grysbok, and more elephants.

After a refreshment break (rolls with honey, butter, peanut butter or Bovril and coffee, tea, or hot chocolate) we went off to find some lions.

We found a young-ish male lion and his mother, who were relaxing after having killed and eaten an impala. They were completely indifferent to us and our jeep, which was a comfort, since they were very close, and quite intimidating.

Then we saw the young male’s father. He was huge, with a long, dark mane that went down his back and along his stomach. He walked further up the hill, then started roaring for his wife and son. But they didn’t care. They just laid where they were and he finally laid down, all sad and dejected. No dinner for him tonight.

It was our turn for dinner, which was in Schotia’s Lapa, a semi-covered building made of wood and thatch. It was a traditional village-style set-up with a superb setting of open fires and torch-light, with a small stream running through it. The atmosphere was enhanced by a guitar player and harmonica player, and a dog who howled as they played.

We had tea, then wine, and dinner was rice, oven-fried potatoes, mixed veggies in a cheese sauce, chicken, beef, and gravy. A sticky toffee pudding type of dessert called Mulva Pudding was served, along with a delicious mini shooter cocktail of Amarula, Kahlua, and cream.

One of the guides is an incredible artist, and we bought prints of two of his pieces—an elephant and a zebra. Too soon, it was time to go.

We had done a short night-shine before dinner, and did one again on the way out. Zane said he hoped we’d see “South African kangaroos”, and sure enough we found several of them, with eyes that glowed in our high-powered flashlight beams. Their real name is the springhare, but their back legs are so long and their front legs are so short, they hop like kangaroos when they run away.

We saw so much, and were so exhausted by the time we got back, that we were just too tired for tomorrow’s early-morning game-drive, so we cancelled it in favor of a good, long sleep. What a truly brilliant day – SO good for the heart and soul to see so much natural wildlife and landscape.

Next blog: Simon Returns To Botswana

Want to see more photos? Check out our Into Africa album on Veness Travel Media on Facebook. We will be adding to the album as each blog goes up.