Month: May 2019

No lions today! At 10:00 we returned the car and rented a new one. At Bidvest – totally uncomplicated. For our upcoming Otter Trail 5 days – 4 nights, we made daily rations. 4 x breakfast, snack, dinner.

Listened to good music on YouTube and watched another funny movie. In the evening we had mushrooms in cream sauce with homemade oven bread.

Silke

We had a wonderful last day in Addo Park. We were able to enjoy our breakfast outside at our campsite. We just had to be careful that the cheeky monkeys didn’t catch any of it.

Already at the gate the ranger gave us a hint where possibly the lions could be. At the Lismore Waterhole, in the middle of the park was then showtime. A pair of lions lay relaxed under a bush as a water buffalo came to drink. When the buffalo spotted the lions, he kept walking a little closer and snorting. As if he wanted to test what was happening. Funnily enough, a bird sat down on the buffalo’s back. When the lion finally rose and tumbled towards the waterhole, the buffalo left in a hurry! The lioness followed the lion and both drank at the water. Then the pair ran across the road to a hill. The whole thing lasted about 45 min. There were some cars in the meantime, but the lions did not let themselves be disturbed.

This time we were clearly in the right place at the right time. By the way, the lions have some kind of collar around. We drove on and saw many more elephants, zebras, kudus, warthogs, … on the way to the gate. When we arrived in Port Elizabeth we did some shopping. At the accommodation we had broccoli with green curry sauce and silken tofu.

Silke

Today we finally saw a lion. With the binoculars he was easy to recognize. Unfortunately you can only guess him on the photos. He took a nap in the sun, yawned once and then hid behind a bush. That’s kind of what our two house cats do at home.

Anyway, we were happy! After that we drove again across the whole park and saw more animals like warthogs, ostrich, elephants, zebras, a fat tortoise, the dung beetles, kudus and many birds.

 

Back at camp, we made ourselves a campfire again. For dinner we had mashed potatoes with cheese sauce and salad.

Silke

We left this morning for a self game drive and observed elephants, zebras, kudus, ostrich and many warthogs. But since there are many signs in the camp asking to avoid the elephant dung to protect the dung beetles (Circellium bacchu), we took a close look.

It’s interesting what all goes on in the muck! The female beetles roll their balls tirelessly at over 30 degrees! They are about 4-5 cm in size. They are especially worthy of protection because they spread and bury manure for meters, helping many plants to thrive.

Back at camp, we played a round of Carcassonne and sat down at the viewpoint from the waterhole for sunset. Except for a few ducks, however, no animals had shown up to drink. In the evening we heated up schakalaka and corn with beans and made a campfire in a fire bowl!

Silke

Since we bought a brand new tent, we decided to use it for a few days. Today we went by Uber to the rental station to rent a PickUp Ford Ranger. It became a Nissan NP 300. The rental took a little longer, because we had to set up our credit card first because of the considerable deposit (2500€). By the way, May 1st is also a public holiday here. In the Addo Elephant Park we pitched our tent and warmed up a can of Schakalaka for supper. The stars are shining and the crickets are chirping. Good camping weather! 24 degrees during the day and 14 degrees at night.

Again, we have seen elephants, zebras, kudus, warthogs, monkeys and birds along the way.

Silke