On to Addo
We were able to sleep in today and got up around 7:30 am. It was a little cooler and cloudy, but we still had breakfast outside. Afterwards we packed up to drive to Addo Elephant Park. While we were sad to leave Knysna and Villa Afrikana, it was time to see some animals. On our way to Addo, we stopped off at Jeffrey’s Bay, but before we got there we had our first Baboon sighting. The animal just ran out on the middle of a national highway.
At Jeffery’s Bay we stopped off for lunch. The area is suppose to be one of the top 3 surfing areas in the world, however, we didn’t see anyone surfing. Probably a little too cold as the temp was around 22 and breezy. On recommendation from Ross at Villa Africana we chose Kitchen Windows right on the beach. Charlotte had calamari making this about one-half dozen tries. This version was also very good. I had a small rock lobster, Troy had lamb and Randy had a huge seafood platter. Three of us also had a soup split 50/50 of cream of broccoli and butternut squash. Tasty indeed.
After lunch we drove to the lodge we are staying at which is in the park, but is private and not part of the public park. We traveled some rough roads to get here, but it is definitely worth it. On the drive in we saw many Zebra. We joked that we will be probably be tired of zebra after we leave. Shortly after arriving at Riverbend, we went for our first game drive. It is still the slow season and there is only one other group of four at the park so we have our own open air car and ranger. Our guide did confirm that they have so many zebra you could trip over them blindfolded. On the drive we saw more zebra, red harte beasts, ostriches, an elephant, jackal, many warthogs and also two male lions. We drove up very close to the lions and got a great view of them. Lions don’t move much so these boys were considered very active as they picked there heads up when we arrived and started yawning. Doesn’t sound like much, but a lions yawn is intimidating that close in an open car. They also rolled on their back to stretch and one of them got up and walked to a different spot. Very impressive.
We then were off, back to the lodge for dinner. Very good food! We had kudu and calamari appetizers, Troy and I had the Impala which was very tasty. Charlotte had the Kingklip and Randy had the risotto. At dessert our intent was to get each of the two desserts, but Randy wanted his own which somehow confused everything and we ended up with 5 desserts. We have an early morning tomorrow so off to bed early.