The Addo Elephant National Park

As I had some time yesterday afternoon on my way to my accommodation, I drove into the Addo for the first time. Thanks to my pre-purchased wildcard, I can visit all South African national parks free of charge for a year, so it was a good opportunity to make a little detour. Compared to Kruger, Addo National Park is much smaller. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive from the south gate to the north gate and there are no other exits. So around 2 p.m., I drove into the park and immediately started doing the first loops. Loops are circular routes in the park that always lead you back to the main road. At the beginning, I saw a few kudus, zebras, and ostriches. In some places in the park, it was allowed to leave the car. I never saw any animals at these spots, except for a few birds. It took quite a while until I saw the first elephants. The Addo has quite dense bushes and the elephants have good hiding options. Usually, you can find them at waterholes. Since it is currently winter in South Africa and also the dry season, there is hardly any water except at the waterholes. There are supposed to be a few lions in the park as well, and this time I was luckier than in Kruger. There I only saw a lion from a distance, but on this day, it almost walked right in front of my car together with its lioness. They enjoyed themselves in front of me on the gravel road. What huge and beautiful animals! After about ten minutes, both of them disappeared into the bush and I drove to my accommodation afterwards. Today I started early again and spent almost the entire day in the park. I drove all the roads and all the loops. In doing so, I was able to observe quite a lot of animals. Especially towards the end, I saw a lot of elephants. Overall, I still found Kruger National Park to be much more beautiful and diverse in terms of species. Tomorrow, I will continue along the Garden Route to the Tsitsikamma National Park, where scenic highlights await me :)

For those who want to see what a day on safari looks like, I recommend my time-lapse video I took today on YouTube.

Click here!