Travelling along the coast so far in South Africa, we have been fortunate enough to see marine life such as whales and great white sharks. Now was the time to leave the glorious coast and head inland, to Addo Elephant National Park.

We stopped by Port Elizabeth for lunch on our drive and had a quick look at the town marking the end of the Garden Route. The port is huge with too many container ships to count and can be seen from far along the coast, with sky high cranes towering across the docks. We had a nice lunch by the sea and then set off for Addo.

View from the pier in Port Elizabeth

Leaving the coast was bittersweet, we’ve loved the laid back atmosphere we’ve encountered in the coastal towns we have visited but we were ready to leave the wind behind us!

“We however opted not to do that and took the more adventurous option”

We stayed at Addo Orange Elephant Backpackers, bumping into Melanie and Isabelle, friends who had left J Bay a few days earlier than us. After dinner and a few games of pool we had an early night to get ready for our big day out the next day.

We had the option of booking onto a safari tour, giving us a guided view of Addo Elephant National Park, with lunch provided and comfortable raised seating in a 4×4 vehicle ensuring good views across the park. We however opted not to do that and took the more adventurous option, to drive ourselves around the park and so headed over in the morning with our now beloved little Micra.

From 9am we drove round the park searching for the slightest glimpse of any animal and soon saw elephants in the distance and some zebras close by. The excitement of seeing these beautiful animals was awesome, never knowing whether you should drive on and seek out more or sit and enjoy looking at those you have found. For a good three hours we saw lots of animals in the north section of the park, including elephants, zebras, ostrich, warthogs, meerkats, flightless dung beetles and a number of different types of antelope.

Rich at the Addo Elephant National Park entrance

Elephant out for a walk

Grazing zebras

Ostrich standing proud

The not so beautiful warthog

Elephant towering above the bushes

Elephant posing for the camera

Ostrich keeping an eye on things

The beautiful African elephant

Rich taking in the view across the park

Rummaging for food

Zebra striking a pose

Meerkat on the lookout

The very rare flightless dung beetle

Track through Addo Elephant Park

All smiles from our elephant spotting

Antelope standing proud

We were high with excitement at midday and in search of a herd of elephants that we could see up close. We decided to press on to the south side of the park in search of another herd of elephants, resorting to surviving on the water, mints and peanuts we had with us in the car until we achieved our goal!

Needless to say, after three and a half hours of driving in the south side of the park we had only one encounter with an elephant that walked two metres away from our car. It was certainly an immense experience but not the one that we dreamed of. We had been told stories from other back packers of how they had herds of elephants literally walking around their car.

“The park has over three hundred elephants in total and we had seen around thirty of them before our late lunch stop”

Appreciating that they are wild animals that are not there to put on a show for us, we headed back to the main camp for a late lunch as the afternoon sun set in the sky. At 5pm and only another hour and half left before we had to leave the park, we set off for one last drive before our Addo adventure came to an end and we were not disappointed.

The park has over three hundred elephants in total and we had seen around thirty of them before our late lunch stop. With the sun setting and temperature dropping, we came across around eighty elephants in the next hour, including tiny baby elephants that made our hearts melt. They were all walking across to a watering hole and grazing on the grass and leaves as they travelled. They were all around our car and as I hopped from the front seat to the back seat, to the left window and across to the right window, our cameras couldn’t click fast enough. Eventually we just sat and enjoyed the sight that was before us.

Elephant family out for a stroll

Elephants everywhere!

Elephants heading to the watering hole

Sonia posing with the elephants

Cute baby elephant

Herd of elephants

Watching elephants as the sun sets

Despite the huge size of the elephants, they look like such gentle giants, moving slowly and considerately across the giant green pastures. They were most certainly our favourite animal of all that we saw that day but we’ll never forget the ugly little warthogs as they pranced around the park, tails in the air and hair wafting in the breeze!

There are a lot more animals at Addo Elephant National Park that we didn’t get to see, including buffalo, rhinos and lions. Maybe we would have seen them from a distance if we had gone out with a tour guide in a 4×4 but we left the park happy with our lot for the day and with a few animals on our list still to see in the next couple of weeks.