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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

A nice lazy day with sleeping in, baking bread, a little planning and a short walk through the neighborhood. We wanted to visit an outdoor store but the road to it was blocked by a gate. Almost all properties are protected by high walls and fences , some with additional electric fence. A local resident , who was just walking his dog. Gassi went, has told us that there have been many robberies and burglaries and one therefore closed off the street. It turned out that the man 52 years ago from Wolfsburg emigrated here. We talked a little nicely and then he drove us nicely in his car to the store. We bought another new sleeping bag for me and camping cookware. We went back by Uber, because it had started to thunderstorm.

Silke

Finally we slept in again. Until about 7:30! We spent the whole day planning and researching on our little terrace. In between we ate breakfast and dinner!

Silke

PS: our landlord came home from a boat trip in the afternoon and told us about hundreds of dolphins he had seen off the coast. At the moment, large schools of porgies are being pushed towards the coast with warm water and the dolphins come to fish.

Today, after a coffee, we took an Uber from our accommodation to the airport. At 9:45am our plane took off with safair to Port Elizabeth.

The planes are especially pretty decorated with hearts! In PE we took an Uber again to our accommodation “Relaxed City living”; a nice apartment. We walked to the supermarket about 2-3 km away and bought food. Today we had grilled vegetables, baguette and beet salad.

Silke

At 6:00 am the gates of the camps and gates of the park open. Shortly after, a caravan of different vehicles sets off. “Morning Game Drives . We should have followed the jeeps as we heard afterwards that they had spotted lions at the “Hippo Pool”.

You have to remind yourself every now and then what a great place this is, with how many beautiful animals. Much too fast you get used to the sight of the exotic animals and are only fixated on the ones you haven’t seen yet, just the lions. There is a giraffe running next to the road, or a herd of monkeys playing in the tree, the hippos splashing in the water and an elephant causing a small traffic jam because it doesn’t want to leave the road. …

A vulture, osprey or stork hardly stands out there. Let alone the small birds, squirrels or geckos.

4 of the Big 5 we have seen in the last few days. Elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino. It’s a bit like playing hide and seek with the animals. You look out of the car all day and scan the area. The lions won this time. We almost saw another one just before the gate. At least ten cars and jeeps were standing there by the road searching the bush. But the lion must have lain down in the thick grass and taken a midday nap. We drove out of the park and dropped off the car in Johannesburg. We checked in again at the Terrylin Guesthouse near the airport and ate our sandwiches and noodle soup in the dining room.

Silke

Today we drove from Olifants Camp to Crocodile Bridge Camp in the south of the Kruger Park. At the bridge over the river we were stopped by a gang of baboons. At the Tshokwane Picnic Site where we took a short break, a monkey ( Vervet Monkey) stole my apple!

Zebras were grazing on the side of the road. We saw buffalo, crocodiles, hippos, impalas, kudus, eagles, vultures, hyenas and elephants.

We were even able to spot two rhinos just before Crocodile Bridge. Our bungalow had a kitchen again, so we prepared spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Silke