Thursday, 11 April 2013

Elephants! Finally!


It may be nice to have time to sleep, but it's not every day you get to visit South Africa.

We had to throw ourselves from our beds to finally wake up and start our first complete day in Addo Elephant National Park. We had booked a game drive in the morning too, to make sure we would see as many different types of animals as possible. Departure time : 6. AM! For me, that's almost in the middle of the night.

Nyway! This time, there were 24 of us in a huge truck. At our first stop, after encountering zebras on the way, we could see five or six hyenas, which had just caught their breakfast : a fresh turtle. Seeing that many hyenas, apparently, is rare. Bucket list : check!

For the rest of it, it was just an endless trip around the park, where we didn't see that many animals. Some buffalos again, some kudus... and some more kudus.

Back at camp, we ate our own breakfast before stopping at the convenient-grocery store to buy some food. It is the only store in the park. By chance, you can find everything there. We bought noodles, frozen vegetables, frozen meat, some spices and something to calm thirst. And what we needed for lunch too. The frozen things are a good idea. Because when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside, for tourists having nothing to keep food fresh, meat gets bad fast.

So we started exploring the park with the Ferrari. As recommended, we drove from waterhole to waterhole. Until... Around noon, when the sun is at its peak, elphants, warthog, zebras and jackals all go to drink. So we spent long minutes watching a whole groupe of elephants taking care of their babies. They took turns to drink and get water to cool down. Amazing!

After, we stopped at the picnic area, protected with barb wires (there are nine lions going around the park), to eat our lunch. Here, strange birds are everywhere and small monkees, obviously used to humans, were watching, waiting to steal our food. Me not trusting monkeys. Me ate fast.

In the afternoon, we saw nature more than anything, animal hidding in the bushes.

At the end of the day, we reached our final destination, Spekboom camp, where we had booked a simple tent with two beds, a lamp, a barbecue and a shared kitchen with a fridge. Camp is situated in the middle of the park, with walls and barb wires around. From one side, there is a view on a waterhole.

Other than the relative calmness and the darkness, it's the starry sky, without too much light pollution, that stole the show. Worth! Every! Penny!

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