Party of Elephants*

Addo Elephant Park

October 17th, 2008

After spending time on the coast, we were ready to return to the animal kingdom, well Nature Reserves anyways. We drove to the Addo Elephant Park, near Port Elizabeth. Entering with high hopes of elephant sightings and armed with a map, we began our game drive. As we lapped around we saw some Leopard tortoises. . With spotted shells, leathery heads and funny claws on their legs, they were gorgeous and could be spotted in the bush eating plants or on the roads drinking from water pools formed by recent rains. We also saw a family of meerkats, our own meerkat manor (however we didn’t narrate the scene we saw, well not too much)! One was scouting, or keeping an eye out for predators as the little ones played on. Interestingly we saw two meerkat on the move, accompanied by a yellow mongoose.

Continuing our drive in the distance we saw some elephant. As a result we decided to head in their general direction. Getting closer, we could see loads of them. A whole party*. We stopped the car and just watched. It seemed like they might cross the road. It was amazing. I was basically out the window. One by one, in a near perfect line, the elephants crossed, five metres in front of the car. All sizes. And it wasn’t just five or six elephants it was thirty one plus or minus a few. There were huge bulls with red dusty backs, having brushed themselves with sand to keep cool, protective mums watching over their young, and beautiful babies, which come up only to the knees of the adults and have the skinniest of trunks. Snapping away as much as I could, Karel kept a steady eye on the herd, hands on the steering wheel and foot near the gas, not completely trusting the group to be as relaxed as they were. The difference between an African knowing wild animals are wild and the tourist considering if it’s possible to pet an animal or maybe even ride him was apparent. Luckily the herd, even with babies was relaxed.

Excited, exhilarated and not believing our luck, once they crossed the road we followed them as best as we could. We parked again, wondering if they might move again. They did! Moving to a small watering hole, they drank water. It was brilliant seeing their little tails and huge bums forming a ring around water. Several more pictures later we were the happiest tourists ever. Buzzing with enthusiasm we headed for our camp ready to enjoy some lager.

* Because party of elephants is much more fun than herd of elephants.