Adventures at Addo

Yesterday I got the chance to play tourist in my own country when Kel, Ange, Cath and I went on a mini road-trip to Addo, an elephant park just outside the town that I live in. We planned a day of no studying, no work, no distractions; just friends, food, fun times and the beautiful outdoors.

Kelina, Angela, Carissa, Catherine: forget duck faces, here are our roaring lion faces!

We spent the day driving around ticking animals off our check list as we spotted them. One of the biggest misconceptions about South Africa is that lions and elephants roam around freely and that we keep them as pets. This is obviously far from reality and so it was exciting for me to have these animals so close. I particularly enjoyed being about 2m away from this elephant's bum as we drove past.

On numerous occasions, Kel would point to something excitedly and we would all crane our necks to see what it was. Much laughter ensued as every spotting of Kel's turned out to be a false alarm as she spotted a log, a stone, some bricks, a heap of sand and a leaf. Time for new glasses perhaps?

At this point, Kel is most likely pointing at a tree which she thinks is a giraffe.

No sightings of lions and leopards unfortunately, but lots of elephants, zebras, warthogs, kudu, dung beetles (and LOTS of dung), mongoose, a Blue Crane (our national bird), ostriches, and a few other birds and animals. At times it felt like we were viewing a typical scene from a movie set in Africa, especially with the zebras running around and the warthogs hanging around a waterhole. There were many lone elephants walking around, but seeing an entire herd walking together was quite a magical moment.

We stopped at a few picnic spots throughout the park to take in the amazing views of the place. My love for the beauty of SA was reaffirmed, as well as the knowledge that I have some pretty damn awesome friends!