Addo Elephant National Park | Adventuring into Retirement

We had great plans for a long road trip in the second half of this year but a few things caused us to change our minds. Our big trip of the year was the cruise from Mauritius to Venice and we have also done a few short caravan trips. We have had some family events to attend and our little home in Struisbaai needed some attention so we decided to just do a short trip before we have to start thinking of the Christmas Season.

We packed up the Gecko Xtreme Off-Road caravan and left Struisbaai on Thursday 5 September then spent the weekend with our sister-in-law at Great Brak River. She was celebrating her 60th birthday and there was a bit of a family reunion there. Diane and Carey live on a small farm and some of us camped in the garden! It was awesome fun.

On Sunday we headed to Addo Elephant Park – our third trip there this year! It was not as exciting as last time but very enjoyable nevertheless. We only managed to get two nights when I booked and we planned to spend a third night at a private camp outside the park. I asked if there were any cancellations when we checked in but no luck. However, the next day I asked again – and there was a vacancy so we got our three nights saving us an extra pack-up day.

gecko

The weather was awesome – very hot on Sunday and Monday then cooler morning and evening on Tuesday but still shorts and t-shirt temperatures during the day.

Tiny baby enjoying the mud

Protected by his elders

This is so refreshing

I’m just gonna sit here and enjoy the waters

The warthogs seem to have no fear of the giants above them

AAAH a lovely trough of cool, fresh water.

Early on our second morning, we came across this strange looking goose!

It looks like a shelduck

Then we saw a more familiar-looking one a little further away.

Mr. Shelduck

And soon we also saw his wife

Mrs. Shelduck

So the odd creature must have been their youngster not yet in his full adult plumage.

The Southern Tip of Africa is a great pace to be during the summertime and when the winter days are warm and sunny. But when the North West Wind blows and the rains come down it can be extremely chilly! Such a cold spell hit us earlier this month so on 4 July we hitched up the caravan and went in search of warmer spots!

One of my favourite break-away spots is Warmwaterberg – situated on the R62 between Barrydale and Ladysmith and in spite of it being school holidays we were able to get a site for three nights. Not only were the warm spring waters soothing to the soul but the days were warm and sunny and we enjoyed some lovely walks and bird watching too.

The Stark Beauty of The Karoo

Popping up from the dry earth

A Thornbush full of Mousebirds

White-throated Canary

From there we went to The Rural Family in Plettenberg Bay where we spent a delightful weekend. Other relatives were visiting from Kokstad so it was lovely catching up with them too.

Our granddaughter, Shan, was having an adventure of her own. A young man had invited her to his matric dance in East London. This necessitated his parents collecting her from Plett, having her stay with them for a few days in Queenstown and then taking the young couple to the event that weekend. Afterward, they would need to bring her back. Quite a mission but this is what it takes when you live in the back of beyond! To save them some of the distance we offered to meet them in Colesberg – midway between Queenstown and Plett and then take Shan and Simon with us to Addo Elephant Park. It all worked out perfectly.

We spent three days in the park with the kids, enjoyed brilliant weather and had wonderful sightings. We were last in Addo with these two in January and as luck would have it we got the exact same caravan site this time too.