Day 9

Day 9  - 9th day in South Africa - Safari day from Addo

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Not out on the bikes today - the bikes take a rest at the Hotel while we do out 12 hour safari.
The mini bus picks us up from the hotel at 10:00 and takes us to the Addo National Park which is a national game reserve and home to many species of animals, most notably the highest concentration of Elephants anywhere.
On arrival at the park we take a rest stop and visit the shop before re-boarding the mini bus to start the tour. Pretty soon we're getting up close to a few elephants just off the track. It's quite amazing to see them up at close quarters and in the wild ripping branches off of trees, breaking then up and eating them.
A little further up the road and the bus stops so we can get a good view off a pair of young Hyenas sitting in a culvert just off the track.
As we continue the ranger/driver is trying to locate more Elephants, and even though there are more than 500 of them here, they are being elusive. Probably because it's now quite windy, they don't want to venture out of the bush too much.
But there's other creatures here - we do see.. Leopard Tortoise, another smaller tortoise, quite a few Wart hogs, a Lynx, Kudu, Eland, Impala - but not many more elephants.
Our ranger/guide/driver takes us back to the visitor centre and then on to our per-arranged lunch stop at the Nanaga Farm Stall. I had toasted chicken and mayo, while Mrs.K. had a chicken pie. Nanaga Farm Stall is famous for it's pies and has gone from strength-to-strength since starting as a roadside stall - now it's quite a large establishment, and it reminded me of some of the places that we found on Route 66 last year.
The lunch stop is only about 40 minutes, and so we're soon on our way to the Scotia Safaris depot to sign-in for the second part of our Safari day
We sign-in and pay for the rest of the trip and then take tea/coffee & biscuits until we are called at about 3 pm.
The rest of the Safari day takes place on the Scotia Safaris private game reserve, and to see it we keep the same driver/guide/ranger but switch to a specially adapted Land Rover, that can seat 9 in high up seats. It's nick-named 'the pope mobile'
By now it's raining again and soon we have to close the space above the windscreen, meaning we can only see out from the sides and not the front anymore. We carry on for at least half an hour, trundling through the game reserve without seeing anything significant. After not seeing many elephants this morning , the rain, and not seeing anything so far this afternoon, things are not looking too good, until.....
We see the two rhino's. We do get a very good view of them and takes some good photos and video. The ranger explains that , not so long ago, some poachers snuck into the reserve and cut off the Rhinos horns, but thankfully they did make a professional job of it so the Rhinos came to no harm, in fact their horns will grow back, albeit slowly.
Moving on we see a very wide selection of different animals - more than at the Addo park this morning.
Our ranger make his way to take us for a tea/coffee break, but just before stopping for that we come across a group of Giraffes and so divert to follow them and get in position to get a good and close up view of them. Such graceful creatures, and how fortunate we are to be able to get this close to see them roaming naturally in their native environment. And so to tea....
After tea, we pause a while by a small lake to watch a pair of hippos in the water there. Hippos spend a lot of time under the water during the day, but do surface from time to time, their heads mainly. Also at this lake, across on the opposite bank, there is a crocodile-  but I never see it move an inch - it's as if it was just a dummy (but nobody's going to get close enough to really find out!)
Before long, we spot a large male elephant that's out for a stroll. The ranger stops the vehicle so we can get a good look at the elephant, then moves on a bit and stops again, a little ahead of him. So there we are taking photos/videos, looking at him through binoculars and generally enjoying being able to look at him as he walks. And he walks closer, and then closer to us, it seems that we're right in his path. He passes the front near side wing of the Land Rover, just inches away. Bear in mind that this elephant is fully grown - that means huge. Fortunately he's kind to us and just passes calmly by. I did think that he could easily have turned our Landie over if felt like it. We watch him head of in the distance and then we turn our vehicle around and head back to the Lapa for our meal. by now it's about 7 o clock.
The 'Lapa', is where we were earlier for our tea/coffee. It's in a fenced off part of the reserve. Its a large circular structure, open in the middle and covered around the outside. Arranged around the outside are sort of booths each with a table for about 10 people. Us and all the people from the other vehicles that are also doing a similar game drive are there to eat, maybe 120 ish in total. The food is served from a central area which is also covered. On the menu is: Cadu stew (is like venison), roast chicken, boiled potatoes, carrot, rice, mushroom sauce. On the table is home made bread.  *
Because of power problems, the serving is done by candlelight, so not until I get back to the table can I actually see what's on the plate. It did taste really good though. Clean plates all round. Our driver/ranger came to clear the plates away - so now he;s our driver/guide/ranger/waiter - and brings to us our desert, which is Malva pudding.
Malva is a traditional Cape desert dish. Mine is server with some cream and some cold custard. This was my first time to try Malva and I loved it, everybody did.
Time was getting on and our D/G/R/W ushers us back onto the vehicle. By now it's pitch black as we make our way back to the park entrance, searching for game activity as we go using a hand held huge spot light that the driver pans from side-to-side. I'm sat, not holding out much hope of seeing anything further, when hey the King of the Jungle has been spotted again, strolling home for the night I assume. It was the same one that we saw earlier. We do manage to place the vehicle ahead of his patch and stop and wait and watch him approach, and get closer, and closer, too close for comfort for some of us. He passes just a few feet away, completely unperturbed, and carries on his walk up the track, just as if we were not even there.
So, that was the last game sighting of the day for us. Soon we're back at the Scotia Safari depot and transfer back to our original minibus for the 20 minute journey back to the Mimosa Lodge. Even though we've not done any riding today, I do feel more tired that on the previous days - maybe it's the game park air? ....
....and so to bed.
note to self: .....
spell check, check/update details, add photos and video links

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