South Africa - Part 3 - Addo Elephant, Mountain Zebra, Karoo

It was now time for a change of scenery and we left the Garden Route and headed northeast to the Addo Elephant National Park. This is South Africa’s third largest national park (more details below) and was our home for the next five nights. We stayed at two locations in the park, one in the south and one in the north of the area available to the public. The park is well stocked with wildlife and our aim was to see as much of it as possible. We are seasoned safari goers and feel we are pretty knowledgeable about Africa’s animal and bird species. It is for this reason that, where possible, we self drive our game drives. For Addo our aim was to get out for a game drive, at least twice a day. However, heavy rain on three of the days restricted us a bit, but we got out when ever the sun shone and saw some amazing sights.

2 young elephant bulls greeting each other

Warthog and oxpecker

Elephants gathering

Elephant Family at water hole

Plains Zebra at Addo Elephant NP

Elephants at water hole

Elephants

Black Back Jackal at Addo Elephant NP

Cape Buffalo at Addo Elephant NP

Cape Buffalo

Male Lion in case you didn't know it

King of the beasts

Hartebeast

Glossy Starling

Weaver

Cuckoo with lunch

Forked Tailed Drone

Mousebirds

Male Kudu

Plains Zebra at Addo Elephant NP

Hartebeast with young

Mud is good

Mum and calf

Elephant causes traffic jam

Elephant in the bush

Bat eared fox

Addo Elephant NP

Dung beetle

Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk

Plains Zebra and young at Addo Elephant NP

From Addo in was north and into the Karoo. The Karoo is a semi desert and provides completely different scenery to what we had experienced so far. Our first stop was the Mountain Zebra National Park (more details below) for a bit more wildlife watching before moving onto the attractive town of Graaff Reinet. We had a short but great time in Mountain Zebra, stunning scenery, wonderful wildlife and very pleasant accommodation. No rain this time, just hot and sunny, 41 degrees on one day which was quite a change from what had been experiencing.

Good Advice

Mountain Zebra NP

Male Ostrich

Black wildebeast

Blesbok

Springbok

Baboon

Mountain Zebra in Mountain Zebra NP (Different from Plains Zebra. Look closely at the stripes and nose)

Pride of Lions Mountain Zebra NP

Pride of Lions Mountain Zebra NP

Mountain Zebra NP

Mountain Zebra

Mountain Zebra

Swallow

Ground Squirrel

Yellow Mongoose with Snake

Oryx or Gemsbok

Secretary bird (named because of the head quills feather)

We then had two nights in a brightly coloured cottage in the centre of Graaff Reinet. Our aim was to explore the town and the Camdeboo National Park, which was close by. Therefore our one full day was pretty busy. An early start was required for the park visit, and to avoid the heat, so we found ourselves in the Valley of Desolation soon after 06:00am. It was worth it, the Karoo landscape was at its most magnificent that time of the morning. The early start also gave us plenty of time to explore Graff Reinet as well. The town was particularly attractive with period buildings lining many of the streets each fronted by the colourful bloom of flowering tree. Town activities included visits to two small be very interesting museums, lunch at a quaint restaurant and a bit of shopping to finish the day. Anne in particular appreciated being out of the car, after a week of game driving.

Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reform Church

Graaff-Reinet Museum

Graaff-Reinet

Graaff-Reinet

Street Sellers, Graaff-Reinet

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

View of Graaff-Reinet

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Cactus

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Valley of Desolation, Camdeboo NP, Karoo

Personal Observations & Interesting Facts

Addo Elephant National Park
In the early centuries, when great herds of wild animals roamed the Addo region, the Khoesan of the Iqua, Damasqua and Gonaqua clans lived in the area. They hunted and kept cattle but tragically were largely wiped out in the 1700s by the smallpox epidemic. Nomadic Xhosa tribes also had kraals in the area, including Chief Cungwa of the Gqunukhwebe (near the Sundays River mouth and inland) and Chief Habana of the Dange (near the Wit River). Wildlife was plentiful and the Xhosa lived in harmony with it.
That all changed when the Europeans arrived. The great herds of elephant and other animal species were all but decimated by hunters over the 1700s and 1800s. In the late 1800s, farmers began to colonise the area around what is now the park, also taking their toll on the remaining elephant population, due to competition for water and crops.
This conflict reached a head in 1919 when farmers called on the government to exterminate the elephants. The government even appointed a Major Pretorius to shoot the remaining elephants - who killed 114 elephant between 1919 and 1920. By 1931 only 11 elephants remained in the Addo area, and the Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) was proclaimed to protect them.
The original size of the park was just over 2 000 hectares and conflicts between elephants and farmers continued after proclamation as no adequate fence enclosed the park. Finally in 1954, Graham Armstrong (the park manager at the time) developed an elephant-proof fence constructed using tram rails and lift cables and an area of 2 270 hectares was fenced in. There were 22 elephant in the park at the time. This Armstrong fence, named after its developer, is still used around the park today. Although the park was originally proclaimed to protect a single species, priorities changed to also include the conservation of the rich biological diversity found in the area and to re-introduce the other wildlife that once roamed the region.
Today the park covers almost 300,000 hectares and stretches from the coast to the mountains. Most of the original wildlife has been reintroduced, including Elephant, Black Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo and a large range of antelope.

Elephants Trunk
The elephant’s trunk has 60,000 muscles. This is why the limb is so versatile and has multiple functions. It also means that it takes a long time for young elephants to learn how to use it properly. Hence you often see the trunk of a young elephant swaying around apparently out of control.

Mountain Zebra National Park
The region that the Mountain Zebra National Park now occupies was once full of wildlife, as indicated by San cave painting that are found in the area. A familiar story surrounds the park, farmers move in from the 1830’s and the wildlife disappears. However, in this case it was also local farmers that came to the rescue. In 1937 a group of local farmers gave up some of their land to try and protect the remaining endangered Cape Mountain Zebra, which at the time only numbered 11. Initially 1,712 hectares was set aside and the Zebra population began to recover. But as time went by it was clear that more space was need for the growing Zebra population. In steps an artist by the name of David Shepherd, who donates money from the sale of his prints to purchase more land. Soon local businesses and individual joined in the money raising followed by the SAN Parks trust that pledged to match all moneys raised. Soon the park expanded to 6,536 hectares, and eventually to the 28,412 hectares it is today. Today there are estimated to be around 750 Cape Mountain Zebra in the park plus a healthy population of re-introduced animals. Antelopes, such as Black Wildebeest (considered endangered), Hartebeest, Besbok and Kudo have healthy population in the park. Together with recent additions of Buffalo, Cheetah and Lion, all of which once roamed the area, and in the later cases, there to help regulate the non-predator population growth.
The history of this area does not only revolve around its wildlife. During the Anglo-Boar war British soldiers were stationed in the area. And during times of non-action they amused themselves by playing chess with other soldiers stationed in Fort Cradock (about 10klm away). They achieved this by marking out a chessboard on top of Salpeterskop (1,514m) and transmitting their moves by the way of mirror signals.