It only takes a trip to one of our National Parks to realise how lucky South Africans are to have an abundance of wildlife, easily accessible and often so close you can almost feel their breath. In Addo Elephant National Park, where the animals are very accustomed to humans, close encounters a given.
I went to Addo to photograph elephants – baby elephants in particular. Addo over-deleivered and I came home with 1200+ photographs that have taken two months to sift through. But before I let the ellies take all the glory, first a post to shine the spotlight on the other magnificent beasts that inhabit this amazing, well-run Park. From Cape Buffalo to Black-backed Jackals to Zebra and warthogs galore, right down to the tiny, endangered dung-beetle, Addo’s animals come in all shapes and sizes.
Earth Under My Feet 
We loved our stay in Addo back in 2008 – doesn’t seem that long – and saw loads of lovely ellies and others. Your photos of the Black-backed Jackal and the Zebra are stunning. We did have a fleeting glimpse of a Jackal, but no photo and I’m not sure we saw Zebra then. I do remember visiting the park way back in the 1970s when the only thing we saw was a jackal, after driving around for hours, then just as we were leaving the park a herd of ellies came down to the water-hole near the exit. It has changed a lot since those days!
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Thanks Jude. I’m delighted to say the elephant population is now way over 700 strong and sightings are frequent, especially in the heat of the day at the watering holes. Personally I think the warthog population has exploded too much but perhaps the lions will sort that out naturally. We saw loads of hartebees, zebra, buffalo and kudu and ellies in prufusion. I was in my absolute element. That trip to Addo was long overdue for me 🙂
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We met three of the lions on our way out of the park. That set the heart beating! Hope they have improved the menu in the restaurant there!!
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You will be pleased to hear that the days of dreary old SanParks restaurants are long gone. Addo has a Cattle Baron franchise in the main camp and we had a late breakfast there which was really good. The shop next door where you buy wood and ice and other basics is quite pricey but the restaurant was good value for money.
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That’s good to know!
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