t Elephants roaming the plains of Addo Elephant National Park

EXPERIENCE Eastern Cape

t Double-tap image to read the labels

The park and a cluster of associated private reserves lie a short drive inland and northeast of Port Elizabeth. Addo’s focal point is the fenced main game area, which extends over some 200 sq km (77 sq miles) and supports around 600 very relaxed elephants. Crisscrossed by a good network of game-viewing roads and serviced by a rest camp, this sector is ideal for self-drive safaris; elephant sightings are a near certainty and there is plenty of other wildlife too. In addition to self-drive, it’s also possible to book guided game drives at reception, including night drives. For a more upmarket, exclusive safari experience, nearby private game reserves such as Shamwari, Amakhala and Kwantu offer five-star bush accommodation and all-inclusive packages along similar lines to their counterparts in Sabi Sands and Madikwe.

Offering independent travellers the most rewarding self-drive game-viewing experience anywhere in the Eastern or Western Cape, Addo’s fenced main game area extends over 200 sq km (77 sq miles) of dense tangled thicket dominated by the spekboom (bacon tree), a 2–3 m (7–10 ft) succulent whose leaves reputedly taste like cured meat.

The park started life as a 68-sq-km (26-sq-mile)municipal reserve set aside in 1921 to protect Africa’s most southerly elephant population. At that time it constituted 15 or so misanthropic survivors of a vermin eradication scheme, during which Major Philip Pretorius, under contract to Uitenhage Town Council, had hunted down 120 members of their kin. In 1931, the reserve was upgraded to national park status, and by 1954 it had been fenced off to prevent the elephants from raiding nearby farms. For many years after this, Addo resembled a large zoo where oranges were placed below the rest camp at night to lure out the shy beasts, while stout fences separated them from visitors.

It is all very different today. Around 600 elephants freely roam the core park, which is one of the best places anywhere in Africa to witness the interaction and behaviour of these wonderful creatures at close quarters. Leopard, buffalo, greater kudu, eland, bushbuck and red hartebeest also occur naturally, while the reintroduction of black rhino, lion and spotted hyena has elevated Addo to the status of a full-on Big Five reserve. Conspicuous smaller mammals include black-yellow mongoose, meerkat and ground squirrel, while the rich bird population of 170 species includes the endemic jackal buzzard, bokmakierie, southern tchagra, southern boubou, Cape weaver and Cape bulbul. One of the park’s most fascinating creatures is often overlooked by visitors: the flightless dung beetle. Signs warn motorists not to drive over these precious insects.

t A bokmakierie, with characteristically vibrant green and yellow plumage

EXPERIENCE Eastern Cape

The Flightless Dung Beetle

Endemic to Addo and its environs, the flightless dung beetle has evolved an arid-adapted, water-conserving breathing mechanism, which uses the empty space below the sheath that protects the wings of related beetles. The beetles are often seen on the roads, valiantly pushing one of the buffalo- or elephant-dung balls wherein they lay their eggs.

Like the Mountain Zebra and Bontebok national parks, Addo was created primarily to preserve one single species, and that remained the case until 1997, when a visionary proposal was put forward to allow the park to stretch from the peaks of the Zuurberg to the coastal dunes west of Port Alfred. Today, the Greater Addo Elephant National Park extends over a full 1,640 sq km (633 sq miles) and protects five of South Africa’s seven terrestrial biomes, with habitats that range from montane forest and coastal fynbos to 100-m- (330-ft-) high dunes and the euphorbia-studded plains of the Karoo.

Elephants remain the main tourist draw, but there are also a couple of scenic day trails that can be undertaken across the mountainous Zuurberg, the most accessible of the appended terrestrial sectors of the park.

The 250-sq-km (97-sq-mile) Woody Cape sector of Addo protects the Alexandria forest, home to 170 tree species, as well as South Africa’s largest active dune system. It is best explored on the two-day, 35-km (22-mile) Alexandria Hiking Trail, a circular route that passes through dense indigenous forest and climbs 150-m- (500-ft-) high sand dunes to form one of the finest coastal walks in South Africa. Plentiful small wildlife includes vervet monkey, bushpig, bushbuck, Cape grysbok and forest birds such as trumpeter hornbill, crowned eagle and Narina trogon. It is accessed via the attractive hamlet of Alexandria, which was founded in 1856 around a Dutch Reformed Church. Offshore, the marine sector offers fine seasonal whale-watching (June to January) and islands that host the world’s largest breeding colony of Cape gannets (120,000 birds), as well as Cape fur seals, African penguins and other species.

The Eastern Cape’s largest private reserve, Shamwari protects 200 sq km (77 sq miles) of undulating bushveld in the catchment area of the Bushmans River. The recipient of several international awards, it was the brainchild of entrepreneur Adrian Gardiner, who originally bought the ranch in the hills near Paterson as a family retreat. It was gradually expanded, before becoming the first private reserve in the Eastern Cape to reintroduce large mammals. Today, Shamwari is home to all of the Big Five as well as zebra, giraffe, eland, greater kudu, impala, gemsbok, hartebeest, springbok and black wildebeest. It offers an exclusive, all-inclusive safari experience similar to the private reserves adjoining Kruger.

t Zebra, one of the many herbivore species found in the Addo area

t A close encounter with Addo’s elephants on a game drive

Extending across 60 sq km (23 sq miles) of biodiverse and scenic plains verged by the Bushman’s River, this award-winning private reserve offers expertly guided morning, afternoon and evening game drives in search of the reintroduced Big Five as well as naturally occurring wildlife such as greater kudu, blue duiker, aardwolf, caracal and porcupine. It is particularly rewarding for birdwatchers, with more than 250 species recorded. Other amenities include a world-class spa, swimming pool, domestic animal farm, reptile centre, museum and sports facilities.

Among the finest of the 20-odd malaria-free private sanctuaries now scattered around the borders of Greater Addo, Amakhala Game Reserve extends across 85 sq km (33 sq miles) of former sheep and cattle ranchland that was given over to conservation in 1999. It comprises six contiguous and jointly managed farms, all of which are owned by descendants of 1820 Settlers, and several of its five-star lodges consist of old country houses. All of the Big Five have been reintroduced, and 16 antelope species can be seen, along with giraffe and zebra. Game drives are supplemented by boat trips on the Bushman’s River.

EXPERIENCE Eastern Cape