Changing seasons bring different experiences in Addo
Elephants conspicuous by their absence, but plenty more to enjoy
A visit to Addo in the colder months is vastly different to those during the often too -hot summer days.
On a summer morning you need to be in the park as early as possible – and leave as late as possible - for the best game viewing experience. Car windows can be fully opened on arrival allowing the sounds of nature to permeate your brain.
In the colder months windows stay firmly closed until you come across a sighting and you can arrive at the park a little later, clad in a multitude of layers that can be peeled off as the often bitterly cold night temperatures make way for warm sunshine later in the day.
That said, if I had left my home in the city formerly known as Port Elizabeth at the usual time on my latest visit to the park, I may have been in time to see around a dozen hyenas feeding on a kill at Peasland. Equally, I still might have missed the sighting by a few minutes. Addo is all about the right place at the right time.
What does not change as one season makes way for another is the thrill of driving up the tarred stretch of road leading from the gate at Matyholweni, not knowing what awaits you as you traverse the park and explore its many loops.
For me, at least, that same stretch of tar road invokes a feeling of incredible sadness on leaving the park after, hopefully, enjoying some great sightings, memories of which tide you over until your next visit. (download map)
On my most recent visit sightings were diverse and thoroughly enjoyable even though, after about five hours, I had only come across four ellies – leaving 646 unaccounted for!
Making up for that was the fact that it was definitely the day of the jackal – I enjoyed numerous sightings, including four young jackals playing in the long grass at Lismore and an inquisitive youngster following my car as I approached the dry-as-dust Arizona Dam.
The day had started on a promising note, with a solitary bull ellie blocking the road at the turn-off to Camp Matyholweni. That there were plenty of other ellies around was evident from the piles of fresh dung adorning the tarred slope up into the park. Where they were at that moment in time, you can only guess with the dense bush providing plenty of places to hide, even for the world’s largest land mammal.
Then things slowed down, the usually productive Vukani Loop yielding an uncooperative bird of prey and very little else.
I approached Peasland with anticipation, hoping that the hyenas would still be around, but before I even got to the waterhole two warthogs caught my attention. In full view of their youngsters and passing cars, they were lost in an amorous moment. No “not in front of the children” for them!
From there it was onto Lismore which, from a distance looked deserted. Not so, there were two buffaloes close to the road and another one near the dam, with a red-billed oxpecker dangerously close to his host’s private parts.
In the foreground four jackals were playing in the long grass. I sat back and savoured the experience with not another human in sight – another advantage of winter visits is that, by and large, the crowds stay away.
As Hapoor was completely deserted – hardly surprising as there was barely a drop of water in the dam, normally extremely popular with the elephant population - I opted to take the tar road to the north of the park something I rarely do as sightings on this stretch of road are usually few and far between. And indeed on this occasion animals were scarce, although it was well worth stopping to admire massive webs – or nests – built by social spiders.
If the south had been devoid of ellies, so too was the north with Gorah Loop yielding just one tusker near Carol’s Rest. Heading up to Zuurkop yielded a sound asleep lion too far off in the bush to take a good photograph.
There was, however, plenty of other game, zebras galore conversing with one another – something I had never heard before - kudus, meerkats, birds including Cape glossy starlings, herons, ostriches and a pale chanting goshawk being just some of the sightings rounding off what might not have been a great day from a photographic point of view but which was extremely rewarding as an all-round back to nature experience.
The ellies may have been hiding but that did not matter. Winter is, indeed, a different experience – and it’s a very, very special time in the park.
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