Monday, December 11, 2017

Addo to Tsitsikamma NP

Kudo.
Zebra in the warm morning sunlight.
An ostrich.
Red heartbeest.
Guinea fowl with chicks.
An African lawn mower.
A goshawk.
The Storm River Gorge.
Tent mates, me and Nathan.
Rock hyrax or dassies, the closest living relative to the elephant.
A bush buck I saw on my hike.
Doesn't get much better.

Monday, December 11th.
Today we were up really early for a last game drive through Addo Elephant park. We saw the usual animals, zebras, elephants, kudu but sadly no lions or leopards. I have been in Africa for almost three months and done many game drives and unfortunately this year I did not see a leopard. They are apparently very numerous but very elusive. They are active mainly at night and hide in trees or in the rocks during the day.

After the drive we went back to camp, packed up our tents and had breakfast. Then we began another journey, this time back to the coast. We stopped for lunch at a very upscale, North American type mall where Christmas shopping was in full swing. That seemed pretty strange what with the heat and lack of snow.

We continued down to the coast and Tsitsikamma Garden Route National Park where we set up camp right on the coast among the rich Afrikaans white people with there huge tents, SUV's and trailers. This is a beautiful campsite.

I went for a walk past the park shop and to the suspension bridge which crosses the mouth of the Storm River. It was a short walk but through a beautiful rainforest area.

Then back to camp where we sat and talked, watched the sunset and waited for our dinner, which was a braai that Jay prepared. Unfortunately it wasn't ready until 9pm. Today was Joan's birthday and her husband Ken had bought her a cake. We sang to her and everyone retired by 10 to fall asleep to the sound of the pounding surf.

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