Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography

Addo Elephant Park is situated about 70km North of Port Elisabeth. The road leading to the park is not a very pleasant one. It leads through an industrialized area and some squater camps for the irst 20 to 30 kilometers. Driving past the squater camps on the one side and graveyards on the other side of the road it makes very clear how poor some of the South Africans and immigrants are. The other 40 kilometers after the squater camps are also not very attractive. All in all it's a very dull and unpleasant ride to Addo. Addo is a completely different story. I stayed there for the best part of two days and there was never a dull moment in those days. I highly recommend this park if you like elephants :)

History

When the first settlers came to the Addo region they immediately began decimated the big elephant herds, because they frequently devastated their fields and plantations. Over the years the number of elephants continuously decreased, until there was eventually hardly a dozen of them left.The remaining elephants became protected in the Addo Elephant Park, established in1931. Because of years of being hunted the surviving elephants were known to be highly aggressive. In an attempt to mollify them, they were fed whole truck-loads of rotting oranges. All together this experiment was successful and the elephant population started to grow again. These special feedings were soon stopped, but still today the elephants are mad for oranges, and will smash any car if they sense the smell of their favourite citrus fruit in it. For this reason it is strictly forbidden to take any citrus fruits into the park. Today there are about 350 elephants roaming the park.

In the mid 40's, the 50s and the better part of the sixties the elephant herd was led by a legendary elephant named Hapoor. The elephant, which left ear was spoiled by a hunter's rifle, was known for its courage and hate of man. In 1968 Hapoor was driven from the herd by young bulls, and he continued life in Addo alone. On more than one occasion he succeeded in in climbing one of the huge fences that surrounder the Park. He was finally shot down after one of his escapes because he was to dangerous for the farmers living around Addo. His head is still on display in Addo's restaurant, and in the south-west of the park you can find a waterhole that has been named after him.

Roads in the park and the weather 

All the roads in the park are dirt roads. They are very well maintained and you can drive through all of the park in a normal car, a 4x4 is not needed. When it rains some roads may be closed because they get very slippery when wet. All in all Addo is not a good place to be when it's raining. I've heard from several people, including tourist guides, that the chance of seeing elephants in Addo when it raines is not good.

Finding the elephants 

There are around 300 elephants in Addo, so finding some shouldn't be a problem. In my case I ran into a group of 40 elephants when I was 400 metres into the park. All in all I guess I've seen more than 150 individual elephants in the two days I was there. From what I hear from people I've been extremely lucky. I've spoken to people who have only seen 10 to 20 elephants under similar weather conditions. The weather is a big factor in Addo. When it raines your chances of seeing elephants are not good. This is caused by a number of things, for one some of the roads will be closed after prolonged rain because they get too slippery to drive on. Secondly, elephants don't have to go to waterholes to drink when it raines so they move around less.

I've found the Hapoor waterhole to be very productive. If you are at that waterhole around 13:00am and just sit and wait for some time the elephants will come. I've spend around four hours near that waterhole in the two days that I was in the park and I've seen dozens of elephants there. Just be patient and they'll come.

Accomodation 

Accomodation in Addo is excellent! It's clean and incredibly cheap. I rented a forest hut for in Addo and paid R150 (USD 15) a night for two persons. The cabin could accomodate four people and had an own bathroom, BBQ facility, fridge and a dinner table. I still cannot believe that it was so cheap to stay there, it's incredible value for money.