Thursday 2017/01/12

Addo Elephant Park

In the night scary and unidentifiable sounds: monkeys? Jackals? Cats? At five o'clock we get up and surprise: there is an elephant herd walking through the park, which we can observe from our terrace. The early morning drive does not offer much. But why wander so far? Buffaloes and birds and warthogs are the entertainment during breakfast on the terrace.

In the late afternoon we get up to another drive, this time into the south of the park. It is amazing how different two consecutive days can be. Yesterday hot, big elephant herds, altogether a lot of action, today cool, windy, fewer people and animals. And it is always impressive how elephants can emerge out of nowhere and disappear again. For the second time, we see lions very close, a male and three females. And the first time we see a "kill", a young buffalo, which was hunted down by the lions. Exciting one scene at the waterhole nearby: Elephants and a buffalo are standing there, one of the female lions is approaching to the water hole, the buffalo evades into the direction of the elephants and is expelled by one. The buffalo turns around and then starts to the attack the lion, which jumps up from a lying position and backdracks.

About the restaurant we have to report that this evening the service was great and the dish made of Kudu was on the table immediately and tasted very delicious, even if we ate it with a bad feeling (we did observe a few Kudus during the day).