Addo Elephants & Cape Cobras in the Sundays River Valley

Up Close to Addo Elephants & Cape Cobras in the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape

Please click any images to enlarge!

	We make use, for the first time, of the new entry and exit point into the south section of the Addo Elephant National Park … and this is a wonderfully scenic route that runs close to the Sundays River on which as new facility called Matyholweni Rest Camp has been built. The view of the very significant dune fields as the approach to the N2 is neared is a spectacular sight. For an amazing and fulfilling day’s drive in the Eastern Cape then consider the R72 Sunshine Coast drive via Paterson to the Addo Elephant National park then back out of the new southern gate onto the N2 then R72. However instead of taking the main R72 to the N10 and N2 junction rather go cross country to Paterson through the Amakhala and Shamwari Game Reserves that bound this cross country road for quite a distance. The route, although a bit slower, since you drive on gravel roads is also about 15 kms shorter. The map shown here is a detailed one showing all the drives within the Addo National Park available at the time of writing in December 2006. You can complete all these drives at a leisurely pace in a single day and still enjoy time at the underground hide close to the floodlit waterhole a few metres from the main restaurant area. There is also a bird hide overlooking a wetland some 100 metres or so from the reception area.
	Sweet-thorn Acasia with their yellow powder-puff type flowers were still in bloom along the roadsides. Raptors sat patiently on the trees looking for another unsuspecting meal and the grey-headed herons were all over the place foraging in the long grass close to the road edges.
	Visit the Addo Elephant National park via Amakhala, Shamwari and Paterson The waypoints marked on this map indicate the locations of waterholes where you can get superb close up views of Elephants and other game including Red Harteebeest, Eland, Black-backed Jackal, Lions, Buffalo, Rhino, Warthogs and Zebra. Many Ostriches also patrol the open grasslands of Addo and to see then with a batch of chicks is a wonderful sight.
	Today’s visit was no exception. After watching a herd of some 25 or so approach Woodlands Pan and take a communal mud bath it was possible to see the direction they intended to take to continue with the day’s feeding. Observing the youngsters frolic in the mudbath was a real pleasure and to see the ink-black jets of muddy water spray everything in sight was quite comical. The mudbath quickly turned typical brown Addo Elephants into black ones.  The sides of Woodlands waterhole are very slippery and the small elephants have difficult getting up the slippery banks. Mother’s stand close by and lend a helping hand by hooking their trunk under the rear end of the small animal and lifting it out. The herd moved off to cross the road close to the Hapoor turn off … and we were there waiting for them as they paraded across the sand road … mothers, cousins, nieces and aunts with the latest babies in tow. A remarkable sight we never tire of seeing whenever we visit the Addo Elephant National park.
	Today we also managed to get a good shot of a Cape Cobra crossing the Harpoor road. It’s not often we see snakes although I would say at Addo we see one every third visit. This Cape Cobra was more orange than a previous one seen which was a brilliant yellow. The snake is known to come in a variety of colours depending upon location and breeding condition. Its colour makes it no less deadly although like most snakes it just wants to get on with its daily life and harm nothing except its next meal which it injects with a seriously deadly neurotoxin. The Addo is in the process of becoming the Greater Addo National Park … many of the surrounding farms have been bought to enable the boundaries to be considerably expanded as far south as the Indian Ocean and to include the Bird Islands of Algoa Bay. The new entry exit point I mentioned above is the first obvious major change that has occurred although lesser noticed changes have also taken effect already.
	The Greater Addo National Park will be home to the Big 7 and Lions have been re-introduced ready. These Lions that came from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park have successfully raised Lion cubs inside Addo.

Botanical Reserves within Addo

Keep an eye open for two botanical reserves inside Addo …
1. A 500 Hectare Botanical Reserve was created to monitor the impact of large herbivores-particularly elephants-on the subtropical thicket vegetation. No elephants had access to this area before it was fenced off, meaning it has not seen the effects of elephants for over 100 years. Plant species and vegetation structure within this reserve are compared with similar areas outside this reserve to monitor effects of browsing
2. Monitoring Plot … This second monitoring plot was created in the 1960s. It is used to monitor the impact of herbivores, particularly elephants-on the vegetation type that occurs here, namely bontveld. Plant species and vegetation structure in this plot are compared with similar areas outside the plot to determine impacts of grazing