Addo Elephant National Park
We have both been brought up to appreciate “the bush” in South Africa. In 2016 we realised that although we had both been to game parks and wild reserves we had never been as a couple. The Easter long weekend of our first wedding anniversary felt like the perfect time! We packed our bakkie withcamping gear and set off to the best safari SAN Parks nearest to Cape Town >> Addo Elephant National Park and Mountain Zebra National Park.
Addo Elephant NP is close to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, 750kms from Cape Town. The drive took us around 9 hours – short enough for one day’s drive but long enough to feel faraway.
Viewpoint within Addo
Accommodation in Addo ranges from caravan sites to luxury bush lodges, such as the River Bend Lodge.
Addo Rest Camp
This main camp offers both chalets and campsites. We pitched our tent on one of the gravel stone sites (which isn’t as bad as it sounds but grass would’ve been nicer). The campsite bathroom wasn’t the best but otherwise it had sufficient electrical points and the sites were spacious.
Their shop sells basic braai food for locals and souvenirs for tourists. More importantly, they sell granadilla ice suckers – our favourite!!
Addo Rest Camp viewpoint
The above photo shows the waterhole lookout point at the Rest Camp Restaurant. There is also an underground hide which allows you to get even closer. If you’re birdies like us then take a flask of coffee to the hide and watch the Kingfishers dive head first into the waterhole.
The bird sightings at Addo are not as great as what we’re used to higher up in South Africa or in the Kruger. Luckily enough we still had some great sightings.
The Park’s name did not mislead us in anyway. We saw elephants FOR DAYS!!! These gentle giants are so entertaining! We watched the below herd playing in the waterhole for over an hour. BABIES !!!
Boy was it great to be self-driving “adults” in this park!! We have both got one too many childhood stories of our Dads driving up too close to the elephants – resulting in mock charges and tears from the backseat.
Rudi and I couldn’t have been happier this time around – admiring the elephants from a nice, comfortable distance. 😉
The one thing about Addo is that some areas are very dense, making it hard to spot the wildlife unless they’re half way in the road already. This is one of the reasons we especially loved spending time at their viewpoints and waterholes. At these designated areas you’re allowed to get out of your car and quietly enjoy the park.
One of their waterhole viewpoints
The park was extremely lush during our stay (May – April). We started each morning with an early game drive and some coffee and rusks at the above waterhole. The one morning we even spotted some lions and elephants going for a morning drink.
In the heat of the day we usually just wallowed around in the pool with a cold drink. We really believe a “bush holiday” is the ideal getaway to slow down and relax! Everything about it is calm, scenic and accompanied by a good snack!
During our stay we had quite a few special sightings – including the Easter bunny (Red Rock Rabbit) on Easter morning!! We were even lucky enough to see 3 types of cats – lions, cheetahs and caracals.
Another great area in the park is Jack’s Picnic Site just off the Southern access road. The picnic spots here are completely isolated from each other, allowing you to enjoy a private brunch with your loved ones.
Mr Wanderer cooking a huge fry up, as usual.
All in all we had such a wonderful holiday and were really chuffed with our sightings at Addo Elephant National Park.
In comparison, Mountain Zebra National Park is more scenic, with incredible landscapes, but Addo has a much larger variety of wildlife. Coming to visit both over 10 days gave us everything we could have asked for!
A tip for South African residents:
Buy a Wildcard! The card costs roughly R850 per couple which gives you free entry to most National Parks and Reserves in South Africa, for one year. It ended up being more affordable to buy the annual card than to pay the daily ‘SANParks conservation tarrifs’ for our 10 night stay.
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