We have seen many amazing animals in our Africa travels, but one of the highlights must be Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa. Yes, we have seen quite a few elephants in other parks, but the park has the highest concentration in the world. You don't just see elephants, you see herds of them, interacting, playing and socializing.
This was also different, in that we did not have to do game drives in the GAP truck, or open air park vehicle - we drove ourselves around in our little Nissan. It was just great, and we got to stop as long as we wanted for photos etc.
One afternoon, Dwayne and I came upon two male juevenilles "playing". They were scuffling, and pushing each other around right on the road, just feet away from our car. It was both exciting and a little scary. They were both way bigger than the car!
The next day the three of us were driving around, and a huge male started following us down the road. As the title says, he was a lot closer than it looks like. We just stayed ahead of him as he lumbered behind for about 1/2 a mile. Then we came upon a huge herd feeding on both sides of the road. We did not want to disturb the herd, so we stopped, and waited to see what happened.
The huge guy following us came right up to the back of the car, then just turned slightly, and walked past us very close. The herd obviously knew him, and they were all greeting him happlily. We sat there for quite a while watching them all interact, it was amazing!
We also saw lots of zebra, warthogs, kudu, tortoises, giraffes, and wildabeasts. We also spotted a lone male lion walking along a ridge just to the left of our car.
Africa really is all it is supposed to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment