Elephants!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Addo Elephant Park, about an hour away from Grahamstown. An American we met named Wren who got a scholarship to go study music all over the world, rented a car and drove us over. Not sure what we would see as it was the middle of the day, not considered the best animal watching time, we drove quietly through the main gate and rolled down all the windows. We immediately spotted a couple animals: a kudu (an antelope/deer type animal) hanging out by the side of the road, a meerkat, some warthogs, a big pretty bird of some kind.



Coming to a turn in the road we were lucky enough to decide to turn right, because only a few minutes later we came on one of the watering holes which was surrounded by elephants! They are amazing to watch, so graceful. I read later in the brochure how elephants are contacts animals, they like to touch each other, and it seemed very true, they were always constantly grouped together, always aware of the other, in what seemed to be a very caring way.



One of them so wanted to get to the rest of the group that he had to cross the street, through and in front of the dozen cars that had stopped to watch the elephants and right in front of our car! It was wonderful, you don’t truly realize how enormous an elephant is until it strolls in front of your car.



By the end of the day my list of animals seen consisted of elephants, kudu, warthogs, zebra, red hartebeest, leopard tortoise, meerkat, ostrich, big bird thing and either buffalo or a big cow. Not bad for about three hours. This weekend we go on an overnight trip to another game reserve. Maybe we’ll see a lion…