A Stone's Throw: Addo: Playing In The Land Of Elephants

Our welcome to Addo Park.

After the sleepy seaside village of Morgan Bay, Tracie and I both decided to get out and see some of South Africa's incredible wildlife. We headed towards Cape Town, stopping for a few nights on the outskirts of the Addo Elephant reserve. After a beautiful night camping, we packed up some leftover braai'ed lamb and some fresh brewed coffee for a long day of game driving.
So the concept of an African game reserve is basically to get a large swath of land, repopulate it with levels of animals that would have been natural, cut some roads across it, then let everything but the humans roam free. So, while it is a zoo in the sense that there is eventually a fence that you run into, its cool because the animals interact much as they would in the wild since there is little to no human interference. People are only allowed out of their cars at the game lodges and certain designated overlook points.
From the outset, Tracie and I saw ostriches and warthogs, zebras and an incredible array of birds. We stopped on a hill to get a better look of the reserve while we ate our carnivore's breakfast, while duly noting a warning of a lioness in the area. We spotted a large herd of elephants slowly moving across the plains towards a spot in the road. Tracie and I hopped back in our car and managed to get there just as they were crossing. It was incredible. A herd of elephants with young calves were walking around our car as we sat there in amazement. It was like something out of Jurassic Park as these massive beasts towered over our little (but venerable) Hyundai Getz.
After a few hours, we grabbed lunch at a lodge and I dropped Tracie off at the camp site to work. I hopped back in the car and went for another drive across the park, hoping to catch more of the incredible wildlife popping out around every bend in the road. By the time the park closed at sunset, I was exhausted. I went to head back around the park (since I had come out the other side) to head to our campsite. That was when I discovered that the only bridge across the river to our little town was out, prompting me to drive nearly 30 miles out of my way, through several sketchy townships (like South African slums) and some really desolate areas to get back. I was the only white guy for miles, which can be pretty bad when you are alone driving a car in the middle of nowhere. I finally arrived back just as Tracie was setting out to look for me, assuming that I had tried to hug a lion or some such nonsense as tourists occasionally pull. We both laughed as I told her my wild nighttime journey home.
We decided to head out in the morning, with so much of South Africa to see, and such a small amount of time to see it in. Addo was a beautiful introduction to African game reserves, and I had a magnificent time. But now we were off to Tsitsikama and Storms River!