Addo Elephant National Park

Addo as its name implies is primarily a venue to see African Elephant in their natural habitat but is also home to lions, warthogs zebra, a variety of antelope and abundant bird life. The accommodation is simple but adequate and there is restaurant in the main camp, which serves a basic but adequate range of meals of the type you would expect from a chain restaurant group.

Lots of elephants! Otherwise there was not so much on offer for us. Still worth a visit though.

ADDO is a massive National Park with lots of wildlife, in addition to the large number of elephants. We had a wonderful day there - the highlight was seeing a family of elephants with 2 young cubs learning to feed. All at close quarters, fabulous.

There is a lot of wildlife to see!

Addo Elephant National Park
In March 2017 my wife and I made a very pleasant one day safari tour in the Addo Elefant National Park. We started at the Zuurberg Mountain Village and early in the morning we arrived in Addo. We saw quite a number of elephants, sometimes in small groups but at other moments in pretty large herds with cute baby elephants among them. Some groups of elephants came very close to our safari truck!
We also saw impressive numbers of Burchell Zebra’s. This is the zebra subspecies in the Addo Elephant Park. Other large mammals were African Buffalos, Kudus, Elands, Red Hartebeests and Warthogs. Predators were a Spotted Hyena and quite a lot of Bl;ack-backed Jackals.
A Pale Chanting Goshawk sat quite close to the road in the bushes, a sitting duck for photographers! Common Fiscals were on the lookout for prey and Jackal Buzzards were soaring in the air. A large Denham’s Bustard was walking about. In a small lake we saw South African Shelducks, Yellow-billed ducks and Red-knobbed Coots.
Just outside the park on the way back to our lodge we saw a number of Giraffes. In short: there is a lot to see!

Great place to get close to several elephants

Visiting the Addy Elephant National Park has been my first safari.
After we entered the park and went along the road for a few minutes an elephant just passed by our car. That was pretty exciting because we did not if we just can wait or should leave. But the elephant has been really relaxed and just walked along the road. The highlight was the stop at a water hole during the midday sun. I guess that there have been 50 elephants close to each other. Watching this scenery for 30min has been fantastic.
Besides elephants we also saw zebras and warthogs.

Addo Elephant National Park is the perfect spot for a day trip.

Addo is the Elephant Park

This was not our first time we visited that Addo Elephant Park, but this time it was special as family member joined us for a trip along the Garden Route. If there is place you can see elephants, Addo it is the place. We are especially fond of the very young once as they not only cute, but very play full. The park has partly very dense bush vegetation, but also has big open spaces. On hills, viewpoints offer good sights in to the surroundings, at some you are allowed to exit the car. At the Hapoor Dam we could see up 200 Elephants drinking and waiting their turn. But the park also has lots of antelopes, zebras, tortoises and a lot of Birds. Predators are rather scares, but we have seen lions on previous visits.

The elephants are so huge!

It's very nice to see so many different kind of animals in one Park.
It's wonderful season in early May.
The natural protection polices are very good. (for instance, Don't feed animals inside the park)

Visited just for one day

Addo seemed very tame after our week in Kruger. It is quite beautiful and hilly. Accommodation was very comfortable but seeing the wildlife proved a lot more difficult because of the bushes. We waited for one whole day to see our first elephants.

a Must for elephant lovers

We fell in love with South Africa when we first visited the country in 2011. Since then we returned almost every year. During the last years, we visited a large number of national parks in South Africa. Addo Elephant NP was on our itinerary almost every time, with ever increasing time spent there: the first visit, we stayed only one night, and on our last visit during Dec2015/Jan2016, we stayed 6 nights. The park's main attraction are the elephants, and you will not be able to miss them due to their huge numbers. There are also lions and rhinos, but they are very rare. There a no giraffes. We can spend hours at the waterhole simply watching the elephants interacting with each other. Their social behaviour is very much like humans. We particularly like watching the little ones, and there were always many of them.
The bird hide next to the restaurant is also worth a visit. Lots of red cardinals and weaver birds.

We always stayed in one of the park's chalets. They offer sufficient comfort and you are close to the animals. Although outside the park there are more luxurious accommodation for almost the same price, we always opt to stay in the park, because there is a major advantage: People in the park are allowed to enter 1 hour earlier and leave one hour later than people staying outside (this is because the gates between street and Addo rest camp close earlier/open later than the gates between rest camp and game area). Add the driving time from your accomodation to the park and you can easily calculate that good light for photography is impossible when you stay outside.
A typical day as we organize it looks as follows:
- get up 30 mins before the game gate opens
- have a coffee and some cookies or light breakfast (kitchen available in the chalet)
- enter the park when gate opens (usually at or shortly after sunrise)
- stay in the park (mainly at the waterholes) until 9 or 10a.m.
- return to the restaurant for breakfast
- during the day, get the sleep you missed (aircon available in chalet)
- around 4p.m. start the afternoon drive (some cookies and coffee before come in handy)
- leave park when gate closes
- have shower and dinner at the restaurant (but self cooking at chalet would also be possible)
- sleep
It is advisable to bring in your own supplies, especially if you want to cook yourselves, because the shop has only minimal choices.