Recently we spent some time in Addo Elephant Park again. We are really privileged to have Addo so near to PE, it’s just a 30 minute drive if we just go for the day and an hour if we take Wagtail.
It’s our favourite national park and we never go there without seeing something wonderful. This trip was no exception. We had some lovely sightings and saw things we’ll probably not see again in our lifetime. We also met some really nice people, one of the reasons we love camping.
Sunset after the rain
The highlight of this trip was a family of jackals with 6 pups. Their den was in a thick bush right next to the road, so we were blessed with many hours of watching the pups antics. They are incredibly curious and investigated everything, when they weren’t scrapping!
Jackal pups
Parenting is exhausting (as anyone with small kids knows) and we saw both parents sleeping in the bushes near the den, away from the hustle and bustle of the pups. One morning it was dad asleep in the rain, another day it was mom in the sun.
Peace & Quiet
On the morning we found dad asleep in the rain mom arrived after about 10 minutes with a large chunk on meat she had scavenged. Within seconds the pups came flying out of the den and tucked in – breakfast!
Breakfast
From the moment we arrived we saw elephants – lots of them! For the first time in years there were elephants at the waterhole in front of main camp. One day there were at least 40, possibly more. Everyday there were elephants at every waterhole and we spent much time watching them. The little ones are adorable and the teenagers are just like human teenagers everywhere – full of attitude.
The little ones are the most fun to watch.
The weather this time of the year (late October) can be erratic. We had two overcast, rainy days and two sunny, hot days but luckily little wind. The rain was welcome as the park had been very dry and it dampened the dust. One benefit of the rain is that you get to notice things that are normally not so apparent, like the enormous number of spider webs in the bushes. One morning we were out early and the low sun made the raindrops on the webs look magical.
Raindrops on the spider webs
Birding is always good in the park and we saw quite a number of species, in spite of the rain. A highlight was a heron eating a snake in the road.
Kite; Black headed heron eating a snake; Bokmakieries; Glossy starling
At Jack’s picnic site we found a spectacled weaver nest with an especially long entrance. My heart goes out to the male weavers who work so hard to build these amazing nests and often the females reject them.
Spectacled weaver nest
One afternoon I was chatting to Nico Smit from Bloemfontein, one of our fellow campers, and he told me a very interesting story. Apparently some Dexter cattle were discovered in the south of the park in 2019. They had been hiding in the bush for years, presumably from when the parks board bought out the farmers to expand the park. That means they could have been there for over 15 years before they were found! According to Nico’s friend, who farms Dexters in the Free State and supplied these photos, they were so wild that even the lions avoided them! The park management wanted to shoot them, but Dexter breeders wanted to capture them and trans-locate them – they’d be a good new genetic pool. I spent weeks trying to confirm what had happened to them but was unable to get any answers from the Addo management or the Dexter Breeders Association. If anyone knows more I would really appreciate you letting me know.
Wild Dexter Cattle in Addo
As usual we saw much more, including kudu, hartebees, zebra, buffalo, warthog and more. Often however, it’s the little things that are the most interesting – like a hare warming itself in the early morning sun between the rain showers. Or the large leopard tortoises who are out in force now – it’s their breeding season. Or the cheeky vervet monkeys sunning themselves in the trees. Or turtles basking in the sun. There’s always something interesting to see in Addo!
For more on Addo click here
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