Garden Route - Southern coast of South Africa

December 2 - 7, 2018

We are now inland and it is very hot! Heat does not translate to Christmas time to me, but it is. I am sitting in the lodge working on this blog with over 100 degree temperatures listening the Christmas songs about cold weather and snow. It is just plain weird. Christmas is a summer holiday here so why songs about snow?

This post is about where we were last week. The weather was great and the scenery even better. From Addo NP we traveled east along the coast to East London. At that point we decided to totally change our plan for traveling thru South Africa. Instead of heading north we doubled back and headed for Cape Town. We back tracked a short distance and traveled west along the coast mostly thru the Garden Route National Park.

After visiting Addo Elephant Park, Vincent now thinks he is an elephant. They are about the same size.

Hibiscus in the campground.

A lot of the beaches have these tidal swimming pools. They look very inviting.

The boardwalk along Gonubie Beach, near East London.

Yes I do!

View along the N2.

Cape Agulhas - the southern most tip of Africa, where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet.

Africa map at Cape Agulhas.

The lighthouse at sunset at Cape Agulhas.

The road from Cape Agulhas heading toward Cape Town. 

The scenery reminded us of the Palouse in eastern Washington.

Boulders Penguin Colony in Simon's Town. Busy day at the beach.

Who's going to jump first?

Beautiful day for a swim.

Found his own spot on the beach.

I think I will take a swim.

Penguin watching is very popular.

Penguins are everywhere.

View from our campsite in Simon's Town.

Says it all.

Addo Elephant National Park

November 29 - December 1, 2018

Addo Elephant NP is less then 2 hours drive from Port Elizabeth. This was our first park visit and it was wonderful. It is a large park with numerous dirt roads to view animals and we saw lots of them. I think we saw more elephants then anything else. They were everywhere.

Our camping spot in Addo. Nice campground.

As you drive thru the game viewing gate the park warden handed us a list of park rules. He told to read and obey all of them. He also told us two additional rules which were the most important: Do not drive over Dung Beetles! (They are large and very easy to see on the road.)

The second rule was: Do not drive thru elephant poop! (which may contain Dung Beetles)

One of the many park rules was: Do not get out of your vehicle unless it is in a designated area and then only at your own risk. As you can see we took the risk.

We saw lots of elephants. They are large and slow moving, but what a thrill to share the road with elephants.

Caution - elephant crossing the road!

Time to move - this elephant was heading right for us.

Lunch time. He was very close to the road. That is the van window frame you see on the right.

Elephants love mud. I guess warthogs do too.

Stand off - looks like the elephant gets the mud hole first.

 Best place to view lots of elephants is at mud or water holes. 

We saw lots of Chapman's Zebras.

Greater Kudu

In the open grass land areas we saw lots of animals hanging out together - Chapman Zebra, Red Hartebeest, and Ostrich

The end of our first park visit. It was fabulous.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

November 23 - 28, 2018

We arrived in Port Elizabeth after the worst day of flying we have every had. Everything went wrong. We had three flights from Malta to Port Elizabeth and as the day went on it got worse. The flights were late. The seats to small. But the worst was when we got our packs in Johannesburg, they were saturated with hydraulic fluid. The packs are ruined, but our clothes were ok because we pack everything in zip lock bags. We missed our flight to Port Elizabeth dealing with the airlines. We finally made it to Port Elizabeth 32 hours later.

We stayed one block from the beach. It is beautiful here. Our hotel was great. Picking up the van went smoothly. Everyone was very nice and helpful. We spent three nights in a campground in Port Elizabeth moving back into the van, shopping for supplies, and just enjoying the area.

The beach in Port Elizabeth

Our room at Onse Khaya Lodging.

Pool area at Onse Khaya Lodging.

Very friendly fish in a pond at a near by shopping area. 

Shark Rock Pier in Port Elizabeth.

There were lots of fishing boats everyday.

Weaver nest. We have seen a lot of these. They are a work of art.

Meerkats in our campsite at Pine Tree Lodge.

The beach near our campsite.