We woke up very early so that we could make our own breakfast at the hostel and then get to the Addo Elephant Park when it opened at 7 a.m. Game drives in the morning are a good time of day because the animals are pretty active.
Since we are all studying in South Africa for six months, we were able to get the cheaper citizen rate instead of the international rate which was four times as expensive. We just had to show them our passports with our visa.
Game driving turned into quite the adventure! The car I was in had Chihiro driving with Skyler, Maddie, Sara, and me. Right away we saw a huge lion. Throughout the day we saw a crazy number of elephants, they were everywhere! We also saw multiple herds of zebra, which were so beautiful! The warthog were also plentiful and super adorable, and the Kudu (large antelope with curly horns) were stunning as well.
At one watering hole there was a group of elephants on one side of the road, and a herd of zebras on the other, and some elephants crossed over to the zebras and started chasing them: super entertaining! I heard a baby elephant trumpet, which was the greatest sound ever. The baby elephants, zebra, and warthogs were so cute.
But the biggest event of the day was quite an adrenaline rush... we were driving up a dirt road and had seen lots of elephants cruising along it; we called it the ‘Elephant Superhighway’. We waited as they passed by, then started driving up the road when a huge elephant came into view. We waited and jokingly said it’s no problem as long as the elephant doesn’t shake its ears or trunk and start comping towards us, but then it did just that! An elephant was charging our car! Chihiro maneuvered backwards very quickly with everyone in the car shouting “back up back up back up!!!” She turned the car around and sped away quickly.
Luckily we got out of the way, but everyone was a bit shaken up after that and got super nervous whenever we saw an elephant near the road. We then met up with the other group and made sure to stick together from then on.
Other animals we saw that day included: red hartebeest, caracal/roolkat, black backed jackal, egyptian goose, bok-maklerte bird, yellow mongoose, vervet monkeys, dung beetles, and many birds that we couldn’t identify. The park map included a checklist of the different animals in the park, so it was fun to check them off as we saw them, our own little game park bingo. We also saw plenty of elephant dung.
After a full day of game driving, we drove to Storms River to our hostel. It poured rain that night and the power went out. We got pizza at a place in Storms River and they had only one pizza oven. So we were there for awhile, but it was fun.
The hostel was a cool hippie place, but not the cleanliest or best kept up. The tented structure the boys were sleeping in was leaky, so some reshuffling of beds and sleeping in the car took place. They were kind enough to give us a slight refund.
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