SANParks.org Forums

Good evening forum from a beautiful Addo main camp.

everyone around me is asleep, but i'm on the stoep of my chalet, watching my fire and inhaling the sounds and fresh air.

one tends to forget how wonderful life is, the road from east london was bad, and the journey lasted almost 2 hours longer than usual. bit we got here and loving it. the kids are happy and the so hasn't breathed any fire yet (a miracle for a friday evening)

this will be a short visit, but hopefully a decent trip report full of adventure.

more after the weekend......

hi everyone

it is not so great being back home.

let me start this report by making a few general comments about our trip. maybe deal with the admin and then get on with the business .

addo is a wonderful place. i suppose the fact that it is normally only 2 and a bit hours from here, makes it so much more attractive. but with all the roadworks between here and port elizabeth, the trip is a bit of a nightmare. the roadworks are much needed as the road is generally in a state if disrepair, but i'm sure you know what it is like - never fun

i had wanted to go for a drive the moment i arrived at main camp, but the delays on the road meant i only had 20 minutes, so we decided to rather make sure we were up early on saturday.

the staff at reception were just brilliant. sorry i didn't remember your names ladies, but after the trip in the car, you changed my mood completely

we tried to get onto a game drive that evening, but 2 busloads of tourists and rotary exchange students had arrived before us and booked both vehicles up completely.

the gatekeeper was sooo friendly and the staff in the shop and at the restaurant were fanatastic.

well that is the admin out of the way. tomorrow will follow the actual trip report

hi everyone aftyer a few weeks of serious 'back to work"

friday night was really soecial. camp was full. but very quiet and jackal and hyena kept me and my 2 blonde girls up for a while.

i had a braai with the fasm and then (when they went to bed) made my 2nd fire. i have a BIG LOVE for the camp fire and spend hours evrry night talking to my fire solving all the troubles of our world

woke up at 04h00 when the lionms made their presence known. i'm sure they were far away, but, boy o boy, they are an \imprressive bunch. they make you feel so insecure!

they stayed in earshot until just before 06h00 when we got ready for our first drive. kids made their kellogs and coffee and at 06h25 we were the 2nd vehicle through the gate

1st animals were 2 kudu cows grzing in the road. there are few animals prettier than a kudu, so i sat with them for 10 mins. then on to rooidam, because that is where i believed i would find my lions

bythe way, pics will follow later as i forgot my memory stick at the office today.

ore during the long weekends

after a very bad month of lots of work and very little time for the forum, here follows the rest of my trip report. it will be rather short and the quality of the pics may not always be so great. they were taken by my 10 and 8 year old kids.

the animals were out in force. sorry guys and girls, but there were no lions on my travels.


there was this beauty. we saw 3 others of this size and many smaller ones. most we have ever seen in 2 days in addo.


as usual plenty of these. these were very light in colour, while there were also some darker ones



obviously there were a few ellies. we must have seen over 100 of them. have a look at a few of them


this one was HUGE even in very dense bush



the kids waited for this one to get really close before they took the pic. you will note that this is the only time they toook pics with a closed window



there were many kudu. this fine young bull was the closest i could get to the sanparks emblem. there were bigger horns, but the opportunities for pics weren't great.



we came accross this cemetry near hapoor dam. actually at least 3 skeletons in a 200 square meter area.



needless to say, there will be a jackal where there is a carcass we saw 8 of them in the space of an hour.


we saw what i know as a toktokkie


some very big birds



and a very pretty one


a zebra and 12 mates

and the last pic is of a red hartebees


that was addo. saw many birds, but none close enough for a pic