Are you looking for a spot of peace in your hurried life?
Then I highly recom
mend a visit to Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. I spent an awesome couple of nights out there this past week and was deeply impressed with the standard of the Park. The cleanliness everywhere was exceptional and the service was friendly and efficient..... but this blog isn't about touting Addo Elephant Park's trumpet ......
I want to tell you about the wonderful peace and beauty of nature. Obviously this is the perfect time of year to go out there... autumn ...... and just after some much needed rain... the vegetation was lush, green and fresh and the day spent driving around the Park was a warm sunny day without a breath of wind. A host of animals were out and about with plenty visible from the well-kept roads - Zebra, Warthog, several species of buck, Ostrich, monkeys, tortoises and of course the main attraction... great ponderous pachyderms! A herd of mothers with calves was out on a wide plane and at several water holes were small groups of really big guys.
It is quite disconcerting to come across evidence of an elephant ahead on the road - behind me and beside me, but never blocking my escape please. A littering of fresh dung and broken branches brought on my flight or fight response... a huge, lone bull trundled tediously up the road before thankfully swinging off to refresh at a small water hole.
Another great lone bull was quaffing copious amounts of water at the hide where one can stand in close proximity presumably out of sight behind a boarded and electric fence. I noticed that elephants do much the same as most other animals... once they have showered themselves down they wander off to the nearest dust bowl, suck up the dirt and spray dust all over themselves. Hmmmm ... that brings to mind my mother dusting herself with talc after bathing.
Stopping at the safely enclosed picnic spot is worth the drive even if no game is spotted. Each thatched roof table and benches is privately surrounded by the indigenous flora and is immaculately clean and naturally neat with wonderful views over the surrounding land. Each spot has its own braai facility and there are water taps conveni
ently placed and an exceptionally clean ablution block.
But, ablutions aside.... its the perfect peace pervading your soul that impresses the most. Utter stillness and quiet that is apparent even at night back in main camp. One catches a feel of it very briefly on a quiet night in the suburbs when the power is down and there is no hum of electronics and machinery... and the stars shine more brightly.
The National Park has expanded in recent years and includes a diverse array of biomes.... 2 nights is not sufficient to explore them all... the Woody Cape section near Alexandria provides a tremendous hiking experience for nature lovers.... the 7km Tree Dassie trail through coastal forest was breathtaking... in more ways than one! Prolific with birdlife and butterflies, peace and oxygen.
Venturing out of camp wasn't even necessary to experience the greatest highlights of the visit. Birds galore visited at the chalet and while breakfasting on sliced banana sauced with granadilla pulp we watched 2 Kalahari lions ambled across the veld as large as life. Roy and Megan - lions have names too - were relocating to a spot just above the floodlit waterhole that has a viewing deck inside the camp. A pack of Black-backed Jackal then followed them and were a delightful sight to see there in the floodlights and at close quarters from the underground hide.
The kudu were barking warnings to one another across the veld and although they had freely used the water hole the previous night, none came close while Roy and Megan were lying in wait.... that is.. until one wounded kudu came limpimg into view. Immediately the lions stirred, stretched and slowly strolled in opposite directions encircling the hapless buck which seemingly had sacrificed its life for the herd.
The lions fed that night... as did the jackal.
