Travel Memory: Encountering the Giants of the Garden Route

Every summer holiday for the last five years, I venture down the Cape’s breathtaking Garden Route to Knysna where my boyfriend’s family live.

The summer of 2017/2018, I got the idea from his grandmother to spend a few extra days and drive to Addo Elephant National Park, home to over six hundred elephants, and so my planning began.

The first issue was finding a place to stay… While Addo has plenty of accommodation, from rest camps to luxury lodges, we were on a tight budget. So I searched online for a spot just outside the 1 640 square-kilometre nature reserve. (It’s South Africa’s third-largest national park).

Unearthing Lovely Private Accommodation

After a couple of months of sleuthing, I came across Tracey’s Room. A lovely private room (with an en-suite) for two available at Avoca River Cabins.

The room was cheap compared to most places in the vicinity and a short, 20-minute drive from Addo. (R600 per night for two, excluding breakfast, which we could have had for an extra R85 each.)

We arrived not expecting much at all and found a beautiful farm with cottages, a bush camp, mud huts and private rooms available.

Tracey’s Room is attached to the main house but with a separate entrance and private courtyard. The room features two single beds pushed together, a tea and coffee station and a large shower in the bathroom. It’s private and comfortable. But, because it’s attached to the main house, you can hear people walking and talking on the other side of the wall.

After getting the key to our room and dropping our bags off we headed to the nearest town, Kirkwood, for some extra provisions. It was a short, 20-minute drive and we found a large SPAR with everything we needed for the hodgepodge picnic we planned to have at Addo.

Once back at Avoca, we explored the grounds, took photos of the river and stunning flowers, said hello to the resident dogs and swam in their pristine pool.

Exploring Addo: South Africa’s Third-Largest National Park

So, as 2018 drew to a close, we spent the better part of the 28th December driving around Addo. We left Avoca early and arrived at Addo around 08:30 am. Already there was a queue at the information office to get in.

As locals, it cost us only R76 each for a day pass. As soon as we had paid, received the road map with information and gotten my camera photo-ready, we were off.

I’d been promised elephants around every corner (there weren’t) and my boyfriend was eager to see the lions. (There are six and we, sadly, didn’t see any.)

We drove around for the first 40 minutes with only herds of zebras, warthogs and meerkats (hello, Timon and Pumbaa), some of the four hundred Cape buffalo in the park and a variety of buck in sight.

Success at Last

I began to despair slightly when we suddenly arrived at our third watering hole and were met with a line of cars… We immediately cast our gaze to the horizon and there they were: a whole herd of about 20 elephants with several calves – and they were coming to us!

They spent some time at the watering hole, enjoying drinking water and splashing mud on their backs before turning around to leave. We watched them go before starting our engine and continuing in search of more elephants.

My excitement over every baby animal (it was the beginning of summer, so there were quite a few still) and every elephant sighting (nothing quite as spectacular as the first) never died down. We didn’t come across the lions, rhinos or leopards. But we saw elephants, zebras and buck aplenty.

At lunch, we picnicked from the safety of our car in front of another watering hole with three elephants and another calf.

We left the park about 15:30 pm. And, while there were many paths we did not take and we would need a few days to explore the whole park, I left with a feeling of wonder and a yearning to return.

For more information on Addo Elephant National Park, please visit: www.sanparks.org.

First published on Tamlyn Amber Wanderlust (May 2020)