26 April: Addo Elephant Park

So, even tho it was my birthday, we were up super early to head out on our one day dedicated entirely to Game Driving. I must say, Addo is pretty awesome in that you can actually manage to drive the whole park in a day. I loved staying here but I think the amount of time (2 days & 2 nights) that we spent here were just right. Although it took us till right to the end of our stay to feel that way, since we weren't seeing much of the Big Game.



We had some absolutely amazing Black-Backed Jackal sightings! We had 3 different sightings during the day and they really put on a show for us and we spent quite a long time watching the first pair (who were running along the road to their watering hole) and the last pair (who were grooming each other in the middle of the road!).

Also, because of the early morning, we spotted the field mice coming out into the first rays of sunshine (like we did at Kgalagadi).

We finally saw some Elephants too. Yay! An awesome, relaxed group of about 10 including one very cute baby who put on quite the show for us. Sheesh but the cars of people watching were super annoying. People trying to drive right thru the herd and pushing up close to them :/

We decided to pop out of the park for lunch, at the place I'd originally booked for my Birthday Dinner, Hazel's Organic Restaurant. When we arrived, I was glad we'd decided to come for lunch and not dinner. The place was pretty empty. But it was nice enough and had a lovely garden that we sat in.

And the food? The food was superb! Wow. We ordered a pizza and a burger to share and both were delish. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area ... And ideally located if you're staying at Addo as we popped out of the park at the "halfway road" and headed back in at the camp entrance for an afternoon nap after our lunch.



After our nap, we did head out again in the late afternoon for another sunset drive. We got super lucky as while we were stopped watching some Warthogs, The Trucker spotted a Porcupine that they had disturbed (obviously got too close to his burrow). Wow! We got really lucky with spotting the smaller things on this trip!

And then we had my birthday dinner at the Cattle Baron with a bottle of champagne Mom had sent with us :) Dinner was good and it was a very nice birthday day.

I was lucky I nearly didn't get any gifts on my birthday since The Trucker realised he'd left my wrapped present on our kitchen counter as we arrived at the Train Station o_0 Due to our delay, we probably would've had time to go back home and collect it, but you can never tell beforehand. So we left it and then had his sister post it to Plett, where we collected it :)

It was perfect, exactly what I asked for! A Couples Photoshoot for us and Sheepskin Slippers <3 Plus, I also got to see the Paintings for Ants I'd bought at the beginning of the year. I had it painted of the view from our Beach Cottage. I adore it and cannot wait to receive the actual painting at the end of the year. So much of happy :)