Addo Elephant National Park

My husband and I recently spent almost a week in Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape. If you’re into nature and wildlife, and enjoy ‘the bush’ (game reserves, safari’s etc are referred to as the bush here) as much as we do, then its a must visit.

Some interesting facts about Addo Park:

1. When the park started out in 1931, it was with the aim to save the mere 11 elephants left in the Eastern Cape. This effort was successful, with now over 600 elephants in the park. The emphasis has now shifted to conservation of biodiversity

2.The park also gave protection to the last Cape buffalo in the Eastern Cape

3.The flightless dung beetle, endemic to the area was also saved from extinction by the establishment of the park

4.Most of the other ‘game’ (wild mammals) currently in the park such as zebra and warthog were introduced into it in later years

View from a lookout point in the main rest camp, where we frequently saw animals drinking from the waterhole:

We stayed a few nights in a Safari tent in the main rest camp. Here’s the view from the stoop, where we sat and had our breakfast and dinner, often seeing elephants, warthog and kudu amongst other game. One night we even saw a family of porcupine!

If you’re into birding, there’s plenty going on for that too!

Overall, thoroughly recommended if it’s your kind of thing