A Few Great Days – Faye Anderson Blog #3

The day we left the arena camping ground, there was one special animal we needed to say hello and goodbye to, and that was Abby – who would have to be one of the most famous Giraffes in Africa.

Abby is in fact a male who is about 15 years old and stand at 5 meters. He has been in the park since he was 1 month old. To have this giant stand in front of you is scary. His legs are longer than my whole body! Everyone wanted to feed and pat him and of course pose for that one awesome photo… Well maybe lots of photos! He is very friendly, yet still very much a wild animal.

We said goodbye then it was on the road again until our stop at Kenton on Sea for lunch and to stretch the legs. Then it was off to Addo Elephant Park for 2 nights. Upon arrival at the park entrance we were told that this is a transit section and stopping is not permitted. However, 2 minutes in and we started seeing elephants – at least 80 – 90! Cameras came out and photos were a plenty. Some 5 minutes after that every window is down and a mad scramble to take as many photographs was happening… We had now spotted 8 lions only 15 meters from the truck – 2 males and 6 females. If only we were allowed to stop, but I think everyone did get lots of shots in record time! Let’s hope they are still there when we start our game drive tomorrow.

Our campsite was very nice, very homely and we sat around the campfire for dinner and spent the evening talking. We had been fortunate to see more elephants the next day with many of them crossing the roads. We also managed to see Jackals, Kudo, Buffalo, lots of Warthogs, zebras, secretary Bird and the Bustard Bird (both very large birds of prey). The vegetation in the park is very heavy and searching for animals can be a real challenge, this is what I love most! We did see the Addo Elephant Dung Beetle at work, this was very interesting as it was pushing the rather large ball of dung across the road standing on its front legs and pushing   with the back legs backwards. It was obviously a female doing the work and the other one following could only be the male… Before you all jump up and down about that statement, isn’t that how the animal kingdom works?