Getting lucky

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Considering its name – Addo Elephant National Park – you can’t blame potential visitors for getting the wrong idea. Although excited at the prospect of elephant encounters, many of them decide to travel to other areas that they think have more varied attractions. Dale Morris, someone who has experienced the diverse wildlife, landscapes and activities in this unique, ever-expanding park, is here in the hopes of helping others avoid the bad luck that follows the ill informed. The horse upon which I was sitting was the very model of tranquillity. I, on the other hand, was not – my jaw clenched, my lip beaded and my hands damp with sweat. Being as close as we were to the elephants (of which there were many), they looked so very, very big, and to be honest with you, I was half expecting them take umbrage at our little single file equine cavalcade and charge right at us. But they didn’t. They paid us no heed whatsoever and carried on doing what it is that wild elephants do best: wrecking trees, chewing plants and flatulating loudly. My steed Eddy, or was it Red Rum? or Mr Pickles? (I’d already forgotten his name) twitched his ears, raised his head and looked me dead in the eye. It was obvious that he knew I was nervous, and I can suppose only that he was trying to tell me to refrain from making a mess of his saddle. “It’s OK, sir,” came a deep masculine voice. “These elephants are quite used to our presence.” My guide then pulled up alongside, and lay his hand upon my shoulder in a comforting manner.  “Don’t worry. We’ll all be just fine,” he said, now whispering. “But all the same, why don’t we leave the eles in peace and go take a look at those zebra over there?” Bless him! After letting out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding, I pulled on my reigns and gently sauntered out across the open plains of South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park. Horseback riding amongst big game is just one of a whole host of exciting activities on offer in this Eastern Cape park: explore rugged mountains by 4WD, foot or horseback; hike across undulating sand dunes and uninhabited beaches; fish in a beautiful lake; camp under the canopy of an evergreen forest; observe dolphins from the bow of a boat; track leopards and lions; whale watch; and much, much more. You can even go to see some elephants, if you want… In recent years Addo Elephant National Park has grown enormously in both its physical size and in its conservation objectives. Once a humble 2000ha – a mere dot on the map – it is now a whopping great 168,000ha, and within its broader confines are six of South Africa’s nine major biomes – a wealth of biodiversity. The rich swathe of protected habitats commences in the open spaces of the Great Nama Karoo and ends in the depths of the Indian Ocean. In between are mountains, rivers, plains, hills, lakes, gorges, forests, sand dune islands and beaches. And living amongst all of this you will find lions, leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, buffalos, meerkats, monkeys, flamingos, otters, gannets, groupers, southern right whales, fur seals, penguins and great white sharks. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg… The six major biomes – Nama Karoo, fynbos, forest, subtropical thicket, coastal belt and marine – are also home to a number of extremely rare species, which are being protected both on the land and at sea. Abalone (a very rare type of mollusc) breeds around the Algoa Bay islands, as do Roseate terns, and up in the higher elevations the black rhino population is doing phenomenally well. In the hope of finding one or two of those rhino I went up into the mountains via the beautiful Bedrogfontein 4x4 Trail. What I found first was a beautiful landscape of striking scenery: mountains soared, streams trickled, trees swayed, kudu bounded and giant protea flowers, the size of dinner plates, illuminated the rolling grassy hills. And when I looked down into the forested valleys I saw bright-green lourie birds and naughty-looking vervet monkeys skipping from branch to branch. There was even a rainbow at one point, and I felt quite compelled to leap from the vehicle, swing my wife around in circles and burst into a Von Trapp family song! It was only the thought of offending the yet-to-be-seen rhino, sending them scurrying even deeper under cover, that stopped me. Five hours later, after slowly straddling the Zuurberg Range, we zigzagged our way down into the great dusty Karoo, where Darlington Lake twinkled below like a big sheet of foil. There we sipped cold lemonade at a lodge, and watched flamingos and eagles drift overhead. To subscribe or buy back issues, click here  Later, we visited the most popular region of the park, the area around Addo Main Camp, which comprises mainly thicket scrub and spekboom (a small thick-leaved plant favoured by elephants). It is in this, the oldest sector of Addo, that one can experience a Big Five safari, complete with resplendent sightings of elephant, buffalo and lion. One of the most interesting aspects is the ability to do it on a self-drive basis from your own car. The roads are great, the wildlife viewing is easy and the waterholes always have something fun and interesting going on at them. Lions were introduced into the park a few years ago, and now there are 16 of them at large – something I imagine Addo’s antelopes, zebra, warthogs and rodents are not best pleased by. Sometime in the not too distant future wild dogs will also be released within the park’s ever-expanding boundaries. When that happens Addo will be the first place in the Eastern Cape to contain a full complement of indigenous species – something that hasn’t been seen in the region for well over a century. With the magnificent Alexandria dunefields stretching 50km along the coast, an archipelago of islands where penguin, seal and gannet colonies can be found, and no malaria for visitors to worry about, it’s no surprise then that Addo is looking set to take on Kruger as the most popular park in the country. Although the diversity of Addo, in terms of its natural sights and activities on offer, makes for a very interesting African vacation, if you feel that you need a little sophistication there is no shortage of it along the nearby Garden Route. The future vision for Addo is a far-reaching one, and the expansions that have occurred in recent years are really only just the beginning. The ultimate aim is to increase the park’s size to almost 360,000ha, a third of which will be in the marine environment. This further growth will afford plenty of room for one of Africa’s densest elephant populations to expand, as well heaps of space for you and those wild dogs. On my very last day in Addo I got back on Mr Pickles (yes, I finally remembered) and eventually found myself slowly moseying alongside a parade of roughly 80 elephants. The single row stretched for almost a kilometre and was one of the most truly magical sights I have ever seen on the continent. As I watched them move across the open plain, I couldn’t help marvel at what has happened here. From a simple objective – saving just 11 elephants – has grown one of South Africa’s greatest jewels. To subscribe or buy back issues, click here

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