Skip to content

Addo trip report

The highlight of the Cape Town holiday for me was our visit to Addo National Park. We stayed four nights in the game reserve and went on two game drives, returning from the dawn drive to find we'd been burgled - more about that in a minute. Addo is about an eight hour drive from Cape Town and is reached by driving through the Wine Route then along the east coast through the scenic Garden Route and the Wilderness, which is truly spectacular. I was looking forward to some time on our own after all that hectic family time with all the cousins, grannies and many new babies, (we just recently got engaged, after all!) and we drove slowly stopping frequently to admire the incredible views. We broke our journey by staying the night in a B&B in Plettenberg Bay which was lovely but not quite what I'd wanted as the couple were very friendly and obviously let rooms in order to have guests in their home, while I just wanted John to myself...

But then next day we arrived at Addo to find a huge herd of elephant right next to the main gate – how exciting! We drove through the park enjoying the sights, sounds and that wonderful slightly spicy smell of the bush on our way to check into Mathyolweni rest camp, which was just perfect. Now, most rest camps are on the edge of the reserve, outside the game fence and built around a waterhole which is floodlit at night, and contain, in addition to various forms of accommodation ranging from luxury chalets to tent sites, a restaurant, bar, shop, post office, petrol station and swimming pool. Mathyolweni however is quite new and only contains a few chalets and the reception office, and is situated several kilometres down a private gravel road from the game area. A nearby town provided us with a place to buy food and petrol, the friendly reception staff provided information about recent sightings in the park, the weather was sunny but not too hot, we had each other and the elephants, there was nothing else we needed.

Each chalet has its own parking, private driveway and is built into the bush in such a way so that you can barely see any of the others. It was one large room with a decked balcony running the width of the chalet, containing a huge bed, fully fitted kitchen and bathroom with precisely two of everything from fluffy towels to wine glasses - no children around here, so romantic! The deck had a braai area, two enormous rustic chairs around a massive table and views reaching for miles across empty wilderness. The most amazingly colourful birds flitted from bush to bush only inches away and serenaded us all day long. At night we could hear the buzzing of insects and the cries of hunting jackals and all the magic of the African night, and we fell in love all over again.

We would get up early, make tea and sandwiches and set off on an early morning drive. The game reserve is open from sunrise to sunset, and the times are posted by the gate with its very high game fence and electric barrier where an armed guard checks your pass and lets you in - woe betide you if you return after the gate is locked - you are in serious trouble! However, the routes are well signposted with approximate driving times between waterholes and rest camps to make your visit as enjoyable as possible. We'd drive around to the various waterholes, park, have our breakfast and watch the activity. Kudu, zebra, warthogs, jackals, Cape foxes, eland all coming down to drink until the main show when the elephants arrived, when the baby eles would have fun galumphing around chasing the warthogs away while their mothers and older siblings drank copious quantities of water and splashed themselves with mud - delightful.

One waterhole has a place where - subject to dire warnings about lions and leaving your car at your own risk - you can cross the electric fence via a high footbridge to a hide which has rough benches above which are set eyeholes, and also view points at standing height, which give almost eyeball to eyeball views of the eles drinking just the other side of the fence. They are certainly very aware of the humans on the other side, and besides looking in our direction, some would come right over and trumpet.

Sensibly avoiding the afternoon heat like the animals, we'd be back midday for lunch on the deck followed by a snooze, then set off again for a late afternoon game drive, ending the day relaxing on the deck in the moonlight enjoying one of the bottles of wine we'd purchased en route to Addo through the winelands. One night we drove through the reserve to Addo main camp, arriving just before the gate shut to have dinner at the restaurant - I had fillet of kudu, John had the game potjie kos, which is a venison hotpot served in its own three-legged pot, and we shared a bottle of wine supporting the local Cape Leopard conservation trust - before going on our night game drive which started at 8pm and ended two hours later.

The drive took place in a big open sided vehicle seating about 20 people, with a driver and a game warden who explained we must keep our arms and legs inside, and not lean out for a photo as predators only see in black and white and would see the vehicle as one large entity unless we leant out in which case they would see what we really were - a group of small vulnerable prey animals - and might attack. Thus briefed, we set off in a spirit of anticipation going through the gate at a forbidden time, with the warden shining his big spotlight on the bush just like we've all seen on all those National Geographic and Discovery programmes - very exciting!

While we didn't see any big predators, we did see many elephant and the usual kudu, red haartebeest etc who act quite differently at night, as well as rare sighting of unusual animals such as porcupines, an eagle owl and a black-footed cat - the warden said it was his first sighting in three years - and it was a treat to see the very shy eland out grazing, they are the biggest antelope, the size of cattle, and the ones you see in those ancient cave paintings. We returned elated to get into our car and drive the long way round on the national roads back to our small rest camp on the other side of the reserve to spend our second night there before moving to our forest cabin in the main camp the next morning.

The forest cabin slept four in single beds ranged around the four corners and was more rough and ready than the chalet, a sort of halfway house between camping and the luxury of the chalets, but still very comfortable with a kettle, toaster and fridge as well as its own shower room, and a communal kitchen nearby with sufficient facilities for all ten cabins. But not needed, as we had our our own braai area and deck and private driveway as before - the park management recognises the main attraction for people is the wilderness experience and make sure everything is well spaced out giving maximum privacy.

It was very hot, over 40* that afternoon, even the lizards had made themselves scarce so we spent some time in the pool before going back to the cabin to braai our supper of Boerewors washed down with more delicious Cape wine, and listen to the vervet monkeys rustling in the trees next to our deck. Next morning we got up at 5am to join our second game drive. This was a much smaller group which was then divided into two, and we set off in one of the two small six seater landrovers with the warden doing the driving. She asked us to introduce ourselves and we discovered the couple behind were Swedish while the one in front was Norwegian, and asked if there were any questions. I joked that as the lions in the reserve were all radio collared, could she take us straight to them, and she laughed and said only the researchers knew where they were to keep them leading a natural life, we would have to take our chance like everyone else. Lion were recently re-introduced into the reserve after being hunted to extinction in the area many decades ago. She told us there are six adults, four males and two females, one of whom had had cubs a few months ago but hadn't been seen since. The first litter was killed by the males unsure if they were their cubs, to bring the females back on heat again, and the dominant male and his would-be deputy had forced the two subservient males away to the extreme border so the females were keeping well away. Very interesting, but didn’t sound too promising for a sighting.

It was lovely driving through the bush listening to the dawn chorus on our sunrise game drive, and we watched the last of the night animals disappearing to give way to the day squad, Cape foxes and jackals replaced by warthog and ostrich. The drive felt much more intimate with just the seven of us, and we had plenty of photo opportunities and chances to ask questions from the knowlegable and informative warden. Driving on, we saw a large group of the shy eland standing huddled out in the open long after the sun had risen, and giving us only a quick chance to take photos, she drove on faster than usual, stopping at an apparently empty place to turn to me with a pleased smile and say "those of you who wanted lions, look to your left".

And there they were, two males lying on top of a small ridge in the distance, we would never have seen them without her guidance. They sat up slowly, yawning, and had a good look at us, showing us their magnificent black manes, then something caught their attention and they both started and turned to look in the same direction and the dominant male, identified by name by the warden, got up and walked towards the sound in that magnificently unconcerned way which showed he knew he was supreme and that everyone else needed to watch out for him. Even from a distance, they were absolutely huge! No wonder the eland were nervous and staying away from cover which could hide one of these big predators. My lion photos are not very good, I got two shots, but I will vividly remember this encounter especially as John's binoculars are very good and brought them right up close - in fact, when they started yawning, opening their mouths and checking us out, and I saw this in close-up, we were glad they were further away! Once they'd stalked off disdainfully, we continued our drive, and met another vehicle which turned out to be the researchers from the predator re-introduction management programme tracking the lions, and enjoyed the update they gave us on their progress.

We were so lucky, given the size of the reserve and the fact that of the six lions, two are hiding and two have been banished to an area inaccessible by car leaving only the two "available" for the tourists, plus the luck of the draw in going on this particular vehicle - the other one didn't sight them at all!

On returning to our cabin, we saw lots of vervet activity - they were running excitedly all over the cabin roofs - then found my roll of mebos (dried fruit) lying outside on the path. Surprised, we went inside to discover we'd been burgled and the place had been trashed! A whole bowl of apples and tomatoes had been emptied and there were bits of chewed apple skin and other debris all over the floor and my bed, and some mints and a lemon had been thoroughly chewed then discarded. I put the chewed mebos on the table while we checked out the damage, then heard John shout and turned around to see one of the burglars had the nerve to return to claim his mebos! The cheeky monkey had obviously decided this was too good a prize to let go, and had entered through the door while we were still working out what had happened, grabbed the mebos - again - and made off over the deck into the trees outside where he sat munching and grinning at us. But not for long, the others were nearby and started chasing him, and for the rest of the morning we saw and heard them playing tag, going after whichever one had the mebos until all of them had got a piece of it.

Thus we learned our lesson, that no matter how hot the day, we must always close and lock all the windows when we left the cabin! The vervets have adapted well to humans in their territory, and if we are foolish enough to provide them with an opportunity, they will most certainly take advantage of the stupid humans. Fortunately, I'd put all the bread in the breadbin and most of the food in the fridge, as later that day I met a woman at the pool who said they'd taken all her bread, pulled it to bits and scattered it all over her cabin in a snowstorm of crumbs as well as trashing her grocery bags full of the food she'd just bought at the camp shop.

We had more vervet encounters, they'd obviously decided we were a great prospect as a monkey supermarket, and once I was in the shower when a vervet popped up right on the window sill next to the shower cubicle and sat happily watching me, possibly attracted by the smell of the fruit flavoured shampoo I was using!

A little reluctantly but relaxed and refreshed ready to plunge back in to the family festivities, we left early for Cape Town on the Monday morning, driving through the reserve for the last time and stopping at our favourite waterholes. It was strangely noisy as there was a helicopter flying low overhead. Unusually, the waterholes appeared deserted, we only saw one elephant, a young bull who was acting a bit uneasy. Rounding a corner, we saw four official park vehicles at the side of the road, one filled with wardens in their green camo uniforms carrying big guns, two big animal transporters with closed thick metal sides and the last vehicle had a huge hoist. We realised the heli was there to do the spotting, then the ground transport would catch up and spring into action efficiently as we've seen on those wildlife programmes.

No wonder the big animals had made themselves scarce, obviously they knew a translocation was about to take place, either to keep the numbers down (they don't practise culling at Addo, thank goodness) or to improve the bloodlines.

An unusual sight and a fitting end to our romantic, wonderful, magical holiday In Addo.