From Coffee Bay we travelled to Port Elizabeth (PE) to fetch an extra person from the Airport then went further inland to our next accommodation, Orange Elephant Backpackers. Orange Elephant is about 8 km from Addo Elephant National Park. The rooms feel more like a guesthouse. Each little house had two double rooms with a small lounge and bathroom. The main area has a restaurant and bar area. (The food at the restaurant was very good)
We spent the whole of the next day in the National Park and in the evening we sat around the camp fire and listened to a band that was also travelling along the coast.
The park itself:
In the park itself we did see plenty of elephants. Addo has over 450 elephants and has densest population of elephants in the world. We followed the herd for a few kilometres watching them play in waterholes along the way. It was strange seeing elephants without tusks. It made them look I bit like Indian elephants.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing a Caracal (African Lynx) in the wild. They are very shy and nocturnal so seeing one is very lucky especially such a relaxed one. The caracal was lying near the road licking himself clean. He had spots on his chest and stomach which is apparently a sign that he is still young.
Caracals are the largest of Africa's ‘small cats’. The can kill antelope that weigh up to 40kg (about 88 pounds)
Another small predator that we saw was a black-backed Jackal. These jackals are endangered because they are often shot and trapped by farmers for killing sheep. We also saw some yellow mongoose.
We didn't see as many ,er, herbivores as we'd usually do, but we saw some very large buffalo, a few Burchelle's zebra, lots of Red Hartebeest, Kudu and more Warthogs than I've ever seen in one area.
We saw a few interesting bird species like Ostriches and a Pale-Chanting Goshawk.
Driving was very slow going through the park because you have to avoid all the leopard-tortoises and dung beetles on the roads. Flightless dung beetles are only found in Addo. Leopard tortoises are also meant to be endangered but after going to Addo I never would have said so.
The next day we travelled to Plettenberg Bay…
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