Port Elizabeth and Addo Elephant National Park (5-13)

Wednesday I arrived in Port Elizabeth at 7:00 PM; so I was there for less than 24 hours. Thursday morning I walked on the beach for two hours before having to meet the tour group for the next part of my journey. It was a lovely morning; so I enjoyed my last relaxing time alone on the beach.

At noon, the guesthouse manager drove me to the hotel where I would join the small group tour for a week. Nomad Tours is truck tour. Although I had not known about these before, I learned that there are a number of such companies. It has segments of tours that can be joined together to make one tour or can be done separately. So eleven of our group of fifteen had been traveling together for a week. The group consisted of ten Germans (although two live in Australia), one Brit, one Swiss, and two Canadians ages 25-73. We four new people were met and taken to the resort where the others were waiting. The itinerary said we would have an afternoon game drive, but that had been changed, which was a disappointing beginning of the tour. After having a few hours at the resort, we went for a very short walk and then stopped at the “bus bar” to watch the sunset that didn’t happen. But it was a relaxing place to hang out and get to know each other. 

At the resort, I enjoyed the variety of succulents in the gardens.

The staff on the tour were a guide—Matt, a driver—Benjamin, and a cook—Thaney. I later learned that Thaney is in training; usually the guide does the cooking. All meals were prepared for us, which was nice. 

The truck has lockers in the back where we kept our bags. Half of the group were camping, and the rest of us were accommodated. The campers set up their tents, which were provided, but they had to have their own sleeping bags. All equipment and food was kept in lockers on the outside of the truck under the seats. They seemed very sensitive about calling the truck a “truck” and not a “bus.”

Friday morning we were off early for our game drive in Addo Elephant National Park. On the way we caught the sunrise. We drove around for almost four hours and didn’t see any elephants. The others had seen a small group on Wednesday. 

We did see a number of kudu 

and some red hartebeests 

and warthogs, which was nice. 

We also saw a number of cape buffalo and zebra. The large group of zebra at the pond with the buffalo included a couple young ones, which was fun. 

The landscape is low mountains; so there were some nice views. 

Most of the land is covered with shrubs. 

Termite mounds are round, not the typical high ones I’ve always seen and associated with Africa.

After leaving the park, we returned to Port Elizabeth where we waited for three hours while the windshield wipers on the truck were repaired. During that time, we walked on the beach and had lunch. Then we embarked on the six hour drive to the next resort, arriving at 9:00. So we didn’t see much of it.