Strangely, two couples did not join the morning drive. Nick and Nicky were "having a lie in". Huh? Brian and Korbie had decided to leave at 9am for their long drive to the far end of the garden route. Now B & K safari a lot - well they live in Joburg and clearly have the cash to do it. But Nick and Nicky were on the last two days of their trip! Personally I'd have been making the most of it.
And what a fantastic drive they missed! We were joined by a lovely SA couple from Cape Town, Elizabeth and Graham.
We saw:
Elephant (we finally caught up with them. They were really noisy and were dusting their backs and "shouting" at one of the cars).
Steenbok
Rhino
Impala
Red Hartebeest
Cheetah (they were also quite active this morning, a great sighting)
Oryx
Warthogs
Ostrich
Zebra
Vervet Monkeys
Wildebeest
Springbox
Buffalo
In fact, at one point, Alfie told us we had three endangered species in our sights - black rhino, black wildebeest and cheetah. Alfie was good company. And he really knew his stuff, although I did find that early on in the trip he wasn't particularly forthcoming with info. Once we started asking questions, he did tell us a lot of stuff. Maybe he realised we actually wanted to know more about things at that point. I asked some stupid questions though! One morning we were going over a load of "humps" on the track and I asked him why they'd put speed bumps in the reserve. I think he struggled to keep a straight face as he explained that they were the park's water pipes running under the track and not speed bumps!
Another day, Brian was going on about wanting to see a Knysna Woodpecker. Alfie made some comment about how he'd probably hear it before he saw it. I piped up with: "Why - what does it sound like?". Every single person in the car just looked at me and said "It's a woodpecker". Duh! Actually, later on I read in a bird book that it also has a distinctive call so I do feel somewhat vindicated.
I became rather fond of bird watching on this trip - there are so many beautiful birds here and it is amazing what you see when you look. In fact, we did buy a Sasol (one of the two main guides to SA birds) while we were in Addo.
So, back to camp for breakfast and then our farewells. Lisa and Simone (the camp hosts) came to say goodbye. A guy called Shakes was driving us back to the Main House to pick up our car. 10 minutes in to the journey I asked the inevitable question to Roy: Did you pick up our passports and cash out of the safe? I got the inevitable answer: No.
Another turn around to get them!
As we drove ourselves out of the Reserve, we saw some lovely giraffe by the gate. It had started to drizzle by then. We had a 2 hour drive to our next port of call - the Elephant House guest house near Addo Elephant Park.
We arrived mid-afternoon. It was still raining. What a pity. The gardens (and swimming pool) here are lovely. We walked around them and when the rain went off we took a walk in nearby farm land and citrus groves. We came back for "afternoon tea" - cake and tea/coffee were being served on the terrace - and then went back to our room to chill out.
Of all the accomodations we stayed in during our trip, this was the room we liked least.
We were told we'd been upgraded from a Terrace room but the room we got was nothing special, probably the smallest of all the places we'd stayed in. I think what put me off were the "antiques" which basically meant tatty furniture and threadbare rugs in the room! Again, maybe just a matter of taste.... the room was clean, though and the bed was comfortable. Maybe by this point we'd just been spoiled rotten!! However, what we did love about Elephant House was the ambience. It's so chilled and relaxing and the staff here are just so happy! We listened to them gossiping and laughing in the kitchen and saw them playing hide and seek in the gardens one morning.
Elephant House serves dinner, and so we decided to eat here tonight. Before dinner, we were invited to take drinks on the terrace and we chatted with all the other guests over a glass of wine. We have three girl friends - one from Ireland, one from Australia and one from Oklahoma - they were good fun. We also met a lovely Dutch couple who speak about 5 languages! When dinner was served, the lady chef and waitresses came dancing through the garden, banging a gong and singing an african song to announce it!
Roy: chorizo/potato/pepper salad
Jan: Butternut fritters dusted with parmesan/salad
Both: rare beef fillet with brown onion gravy and sweet potatoes. Chocolate Lava Hot Pot and vanilla bean ice cream. Bottle of red. Coffee.
This was all very nice indeed - the beef, as ever, was exceptional.
Clive, the owner, has worked in stud farms all his life and actually worked at Coolmore stud in Ireland. Roy was so keen to chat to him! And his eyes were popping out of his head at all the horse racing books and magazines strewn around the lounge/library. He borrowed a couple to glance through during our stay.
Another coincidence - one of the other guests (the Irish girl) is a distant relative of Vincent O'Brien (famous horse racing trainer in Ireland with strong connections to Coolmore). She says that she is from the "poor side of the family"!
After dinner, somebody managed to persaude Roy to sing! Oh no! Actually he gave rather a nice rendition of "On Ilkley Moor Bar Tat" which is a famous Yorkshire song. I didn't even know he knew it!
Tomorrow we're booked on a game drive into the Elephant Park, but the good news is that we don't leave until 9am! Luxurious lie in......
