We pitch the tents just as darkness falls but the children are too excited about the day ahead to sleep. Jens and I treat ourselves to campfire.
As the noises from the tents
and cars around us die out, a very different soundscape awakens.
Bizarre screams, ear-splitting roars, loud trumpeting. And while Jens
washes up, I receive a visit – a pair of glowing eyes shine at me
through the undergrowth. Initially, I’m paralysed by fear. The animal
whose eyes I can see is grey and beautifully marked with spots and
stripes. The genet slowly stalks up and sits right next to me. We stare
at each other without saying a word for a quarter of an hour, I don’t
dare to move for fear of scaring the small creature away. Then it
disappears as suddenly as it came.
Where the wild things play
We disassemble the tents at the break of dawn and set off to finally meet the grey giants which give the Addo National Park its name and fame. Just behind the park boundaries we encounter the first herd: elephants as far as the eye can see! As an unusually dry summer is coming to an end – the driest summer in 30 years – the animals are gathered around the waterholes. We spend the whole morning watching high-spirited baby elephants at close quarters, play-fighting right in front of us, chasing each other, wallowing in the mud, fetching milk from their mothers and then disappearing again into the crowd of young elephants. We come across water buffalo, zebras, jackals, antelopes, warthogs, tortoises, ostriches and mongooses in the park – only the “King” eludes us.
We spend the following day in the Mountain Zebra National Park.
One of the rarest animals on the planet lives here: the mountain zebra.
Unlike in Addo we don’t come across any crowds. Quite the opposite!
Finally, we can put on our hiking shoes
once again and explore a part of the park on foot. In the evening the
sky begins to cloud over. “It won’t rain”, say the park rangers. But it
does! It wakes us in the middle of the night, the ground and our tents
shaking for what feels like an eternity. A flash of lightning strikes
close by. Then there is a moment as bright as day and a real downpour
begins. The gale seems to come out of nowhere, pulling and tugging at
the tents, whilst the thunderstorm rages in the mountains. We don’t get a
wink of sleep. In the morning we shake the rain off our things and pack
up. The Kalahari is still 900 kilometres away. The landscape around us
is completely awash. “It is summer there, right?” Mio wants to know.
“And there are lions!” None of us need any further persuasion. Soaking
wet, we clamber into the car and set off northwards.
A night-time visit
Where the wild things play
We disassemble the tents at the break of dawn and set off to finally meet the grey giants which give the Addo National Park its name and fame. Just behind the park boundaries we encounter the first herd: elephants as far as the eye can see! As an unusually dry summer is coming to an end – the driest summer in 30 years – the animals are gathered around the waterholes. We spend the whole morning watching high-spirited baby elephants at close quarters, play-fighting right in front of us, chasing each other, wallowing in the mud, fetching milk from their mothers and then disappearing again into the crowd of young elephants. We come across water buffalo, zebras, jackals, antelopes, warthogs, tortoises, ostriches and mongooses in the park – only the “King” eludes us.
What a thunderstorm!
We spend the following day in the Mountain Zebra National Park.
One of the rarest animals on the planet lives here: the mountain zebra.
Unlike in Addo we don’t come across any crowds. Quite the opposite!
Finally, we can put on our hiking shoes
once again and explore a part of the park on foot. In the evening the
sky begins to cloud over. “It won’t rain”, say the park rangers. But it
does! It wakes us in the middle of the night, the ground and our tents
shaking for what feels like an eternity. A flash of lightning strikes
close by. Then there is a moment as bright as day and a real downpour
begins. The gale seems to come out of nowhere, pulling and tugging at
the tents, whilst the thunderstorm rages in the mountains. We don’t get a
wink of sleep. In the morning we shake the rain off our things and pack
up. The Kalahari is still 900 kilometres away. The landscape around us
is completely awash. “It is summer there, right?” Mio wants to know.
“And there are lions!” None of us need any further persuasion. Soaking
wet, we clamber into the car and set off northwards.
