On Safari - Addo National Park, Eastern Cape - South Africa

5.30am and we're jumping into an open 4by4 truck for our sunrise Safari through Addo National Park. What an incredible game drive. Still dusk and with the cool wind whipping against our cheeks we huddled together, watching carefully, camera's at the ready for the first signs of wild-life. It wasn't long before we spotted Kudu, the male's long twisted antlers looked beautifully majestic and the females had such giant ears. Some stood still, stunned by the vehicle, others ran and hid in the bushes. Tortoises sat at the side of the dusty orange road, slow and sleepy looking whilst Jackalls chased each other over the plains. We spotted Zebra grazing among dry patches of grass when a huge herd of African Buffalo walked towards the watering hole. Amazing, we couldn't quite believe it was all happening right in front of us, we drove closer to the herd and watched them all cross the dusty path and refresh themselves in the water, Zebra too with birds flying alongside the Buffalo. 


It was a cold, cloudy morning but when the sun finally broke through it felt warm against our faces. We spotted 2 elephants in the distant bush before heading back the park's entrance for breakfast. 

Back in our tour bus we took to the dusty tracks for another 3 hour game drive to the other side of Addo. Within minutes we were blocked by African Elephants in the road ahead and only about a metre away from us! Such incredible, pre-historic looking creatures, they were relatively slow and so heavy looking, every step they took looked like hard work! The Elephants grazed on the bushes, using their trunks to reach the tall leaves, happily munching without a second glance at us. Along the way, we saw many more Kudu, by lunch-time animals were appearing much closer. 

We spotted another couple of elephants walking towards the main watering hole, following them there we stumbled upon over 150 of them hanging out there having a drink. Babies taking shade under their mothers and smaller elephants  playing in the water splashing each other and rolling around. Families tended to stick together and we spotted herds crossing the plains on their way over. 
They patiently awaited their turn, and when one family had moved on another took to the watering hole. The Elephants shared their space with warthogs, but Jackals were clearly not as welcome. Protecting the babies, the Male Elephants scared them off with a flick of the trunk or a stamp of the feet. Incredible to see their power, only used if absolutely necessary to assert their authority and protect their young.  How incredible! We couldn't believe it was all happening,  like something from a National Geographic documentary, unbelievable to truly see this all happening in the wild in front of us! Such beautiful creatures, we watched them as they played. 

When the Elephants had started to move on, heading to the buses for shade and a graze, we drove on wards to a high look-out point where we could hop off the bus and overlook the plains. It was a hot day with temperatures creeping up to 30°c. Monkeys played in the tree's and tortoises crept along the ground. 

On our way out of the park we spotted Wilderbeest and Springbok, Ostrich and Warthog. An Elephant even blocked our path! We stopped as he slowly sauntered towards us. For a second i thought he might sit on our bonnet! But he moved past us and blew water from his trunk into our windows! Wow - how lucky are we!