The next stop on our road trip was St Francis Bay. Our last trip here was in July 2015, and we had included a day trip to Addo Elephant National Park. There had been a fair amount of rainfall in this part of the Eastern Cape, and so there were areas throughout the park for the elephants to find water. Whilst that was great for the elephants, it did mean that finding the elephants was more tricky and we ended up only seeing a handful of elephants on that trip.
This time round we arrived ahead of the seasonal rainfall. This meant that the elephants had fewer waterholes to choose from, and also that larger numbers of elephant congregated at the waterholes that were available. This time round we saw lots of elephant!
These are some of the pictures from our latest trip to Addo. Enjoy!
Secretary Bird
One of the first elephants we saw was this one which came right alongside our car
We thought we were quite fortunate to see a herd of about 9 elephants together, and then we arrived at a waterhole where there were about 20!
This waterhole was quite small, and these elephants were not about to share it with the warthogs. Every now and then one of the braver warthogs would try and get close to the waterhole, only to be chased away by one of the juvenile elephants. This involved flapping of ears and trumpeting and a stomping little elephant chasing a much quicker warthog. Very entertaining!
Eventually the elephants did move on, and the impatient warthogs and the more patient zebra did get their chance to drink at the waterhole.
A bit further down the road we arrived at what would be the highlight of the day: A waterhole with over 100 elephant. Some were drinking, some were bathing, and others were just standing off in the distance waiting their turn.
Every now and then some of the males (well, we assumed it was the males) would get into a pushing competition.
We also saw lots of dung beetles!
More warthogs
Red Hartebeest
Kudu
Burchell's Zebra
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