Addo Elephant National Park is quite popular among South Africans, but often skipped by foreign visitors who instead opt for bigger and more widely known Kruger National Park along the border of Mozambique.
We weren’t planning on visiting Kruger on this trip, as the general consensus was that if you’re headed to the Serengeti (in Tanzania) or Masai Mara (in Kenya) (as was the case with us), Kruger can be skipped for time (and money).
But Addo Elephant National Park, on the other hand, was right on our way, you can drive the entire park in your own vehicle (which we had), and Lori was eager to try and catch a glimpse of at least one of the Big Five in South Africa.
So we made a day trip of it, and it was one of the best travel decisions we’ve ever made.
Addo Elephant National Park is one of the easiest parks to access in South Africa, given it’s close proximity to the the major city of Port Elizabeth.
We saw Addo on a month long road trip through South Africa, so we accessed the park via our own rental car. If you don’t have your own wheels, most guesthouses, hotels, and travel agencies in the region can arrange a package day trip to the park.
We stayed in Port Elizabeth for two nights so that we could have a full day to visit Addo Elphant Natinal Park, a 40 minute drive from our guesthouse.
The deal was that Lori would do the research/planning for most of our time in South Africa and I would take care of Mozambique (and probably the rest…we haven’t gotten that far yet).
Honestly, I didn’t know anything about the Park (except for the fact that we might see an elephant or two…).
Lori seemed to think the visit might take all day. I thought that was an extreme overestimation…how wrong I was!
We entered through the south entrance — the southern part of the park is the least-visited part, and also the most overgrown.
Admittedly, we didn’t see much down there (it was hard to with all the high bush surrounding the car), but it was a nice drive with great views, nonetheless.
Our first animal spotting was of these guys (Kudu). It appears as if they’re grazing against snow covered hills, but in fact those are the coast dunes in the distance.
Zebras were not far behind. We saw more zebras than we could count on our drive, some very far away and some too close for comfort.
If anything that we saw outnumbered zebras, it were the warthogs. They are everywhere.
If you’re going to run into something in Addo, it’ll probably be a warthog, as they have a penchant for bolting out of the bush and across the road.
Lori had never seen a warthog in real life and was amazed how much they actually resemble the Lion King character.
We also spotted a number of unique and colorful birds in the Park. Here, we spotted two Ibis, with their distinct beaks, poking around the grounds.
A visit to Addo Elephant National Park wouldn’t be complete without actually seeing elephants.
At first we thought it might be a challenge to spot them, as the first herd we found was far off across a valley, barely visible by the naked eye.
But once we got deeper into the park, we literally couldn’t avoid them.
They were everywhere!
Sometimes, an elephant just wants a drink, but not before the Buffalo have had their chance.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen three very different wild animals spending so much time in such close proximity with each other…
…though there were obvious signs throughout the park that not all of the animals play nice together.
And this guy (Cape Grysbok) heard it all go down…
I think the coolest thing about the park is that, with the exception of the fence around the entire park, there are no fences within the park.
You’re driving through this place in your own car with nothing between your vehicle and any number of wild animals, roaming freely on a vast tract of natural habitat.
And yes, the park does have lions…
…seven, in fact.
Which means your chances of spotting one are not nearly as great as spotting one of 600+ elephants.
But there’s always a chance…and Lori kept her eagle eyes trained to the bush in hopes of spotting one.
But even if we never saw a lion, there were plenty of elephant and zebra to keep us entertained.
In my opinion, the elephant and zebra are more than worth the cost of admission by themselves…but everyone wants to see a lion, it seems…
…except maybe this guy…
Generally, it’s a big treat to be able to snap a close-up photo of a bird like this (Spectacled Weaver), but this bird was way too interested in us, to the point it got a bit creepy…
At first, he was content with admiring us from a few meters away while we snapped some pictures of his much larger park-mates. But apparently he didn’t like be ignored…
What a creep.
We saw lots of other wild friends as we continued on our drive, including Red Hartebeest…
Leopard Tortoise…
Black-backed Jackals…
Kudu…
Blue Crane…
And even the elusive five-legged elephant…
But as magnificent as the elephants and zebra and all of the other creatures of the land were, we admittedly really wanted to spot a lion.
So we scanned the horizon, looking for something yellow without stripes, horns, or a trunk…
Which, honestly, was a pretty difficult task. Elephants were everywhere. You’d think it was their park or something…
Nonethelesss, we kept searching and came across this sign, which made us think that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea afterall…
…until this guy emerged from the bush and said, “Don’t be afraid my two-legged brethren! You needn’t fear the King of the Jungle!”
…but then, a magical thing happened!!!…
…Lori saw her FIRST EVER DUNG BEETLE!!! WOO HOO!!!
The Flightless Dung Beetle is actually endangered and there are signs all over cautioning against running them over (which is easier said than done, as they run to and fro great piles of dung (which are most certainly not endangered in this park)).
It was more wonderful than she ever imagined!
We basked in the afterglow of our luck, knowing that we could both return to the U.S. having seen the Flightless Dung Beetle.
HEY GUYS! YOU FORGOT SOMEONE! Lori heard a voice say a few dozen meters off her side of the car.
MR. LION!
And there he was, within licking distance of Lori, or so it seemed.
Thankfully, he looked pretty satisfied…perhaps he had already met the guy we saw get out of his car to take some pictures?
But there he was, hangin’ out…
…cleaning himself…
…and trying to look forocious.
We sat for a good long while, admiring his long and luxurious locks, and his size (he was MAMMOTH!!!).
Now, after nearly eight hours spent at Addo, we could finally leave, comforted in the knowledge that we had seen THE ELUSIVE ENDANGERED DUNG BEETLE!
…oh, and one of them lions too.
