Sunday, August 20^th, Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa

As I type up my series to date, out here on the verandah of our chalet in this park, I look up to see a string of elephants heading off to the local watering hole. It's 1:00PM - the heat of the day. There is a lot of trumpeting as 20, 40, 70, 90? elephants come out of the bush about 1 Km away across the bush hills heading for the water hole, just by the reception centre.

This is Addo National Park, set up specifically in 1923 to protect the (13) remaining Addo elephants. We sneak in here on a hope and a prayer: it's Saturday; most places are full. We call ahead on the cell, nothing available. What the hell, lets try anyway.

We arrive about 1:30, and are told the same story, I ask if there is a waiting list/ any chance. We become the waiting list. At the water hole, about 100 metres away, are about 90/ 100 elephants, lots of babies.

The game park beckons us, and we head off for a tour of the grounds.

Lots of ostriches, hartebeest, occasional eland and kudu. Around a bend, elephants. We stop the car and wait. You can hear them chewing, occasional shadows and shapes but not many of the real thing. Move on and suddenly we are surrounded by them, a little closer, and this time they are no more than 2 metres away.

Back at the ranch, and we are told that there is one chalet left, would we like it?

Braiing and wine tasting takes up the rest of the evening.

The trip from Malealea to here was apart from the cruiser not starting (?$#$%$%^!) was very pleasant. On the Friday we left, the diesel had a huge air lock in the fuel pipe, and I did not have any diesel, or know how as to how to fix it. Mick eventually got back from a pick up drive, & was able to give me some diesel to prime the pump/ pipes. Even with this, it still took a lot of coaxing to start. Masses of black smoke erupting from the exhaust, and hesitating on pick up even without any load! Oh shit - what next? Eventually, we leave after giving Mick our old clothes, including some of our winter coats - he uses them in exchange for various environmental/ work stuff done by the locals. At the gates, Aiden & Kayla buy one of the locally made horse whips each. They are about 6 feet long! How will we get these home?

The destination for Friday night is Cradock in the Free State.

Through the border, once again, it takes longer to find out where we go, than to pass through. We pay the R5.00 "toll" out of Lesotho and within 5 minutes, we are officially back in S.A. - Too easy.

There follows a long drive (the longest yet), of another 350 Km across Free State. We pass the time by getting Aiden & Kayla to read up on SA in our Lonely Planet guide - quite without exception, indispensible!

After a Wimpy meal in Aliwal North, we are on the road and arrive at Die Tuishuise Guesthouse at 6:45. We move into a truly gloriously restored Victorian cottage on a whole street full of similar cottages. It's TOTALLY amazing (yes this is Smitho saying this!). Beautifully conceived with a theme, and even actual real period antiques to go with each room, from a maize grinder, to a rocking horse. It is TOTALLY stunning. The kids get in first, and claim the four poster bed as theirs! We are awe struck by it all. But wait, as the adverts say, that's not all. We opt for the "full package" including dinner at the Victoria Hotel at the end of the street.

We forgot to "dress" for dinner! We are met by our hostess in the hotel lounge, and over a glass or two of sherry (medium please), we discuss the never ending attractions and trepidations, in equal measure of glorious South Africa.

After nearly an hour of conversing, we join the other guests for a truly outrageous buffet , a whole table full of "Karoo Fare" including goodies such as kudu stew , leg of lamb and chicken. After we had pick out on this, it was all cleared and another set of grub was presented! PIG OUT! Of course, this had to be followed by pud. This all for R160.00 including the kids - thats about $CAN35.00. I think we will all be really fat upon our return after this type of evening.

The Lonely Planet was right, this place is worth a big detour for!

As it is 10:00PM here, we do a pile of calling - about an hour (it costs about $3.50/ minute from here!), and catch up with various non action at home.

In the morning, (Aug 19^th.) It's off for breakfast - there is a slow flat on the cruiser. Off to the garage for a quick fix while breakfasting. Once again, I turn the batteries around for voltage balancing - this is a real pain!

On our way out of Cradock, the cruiser judders to yet another fuel (lack of) induced halt. Eventually we start, and I'm not stopping till we get somewhere!

We make it here without further incident (there really is a dog!)

For everyones information, today, the kids are doing some school work, about 4 - 6 hours per week so far, but, we are doing some. Today it's maths, (by far the most popular), French (Aiden actually enjoying his book!), and some Canadiana.

After this, we are off for a horse ride actually in the park - just the three of us and the guide,. Sounds great, but it's very tame, only ostriches, kudu, and hartebeest. There are supposed to be 400+ elephants and 15 Black Rhino'shere. All the way through the park(3 hours), the horses - no Basotho ponies these!, full racing stock here, need a VERY tight reign. Kayla gets kicked by the other two horses (ouch!) As they are very highly strung. We stop at a tree in the centre of the park for a break. Still nothing - even here. By the time we gallop back to the stables, we are all pretty bored - can you imagine!

This has been one of our quite days!

August 21^st: I want to get to Cape Town in a day (about 600+ Km), well, we can try. At 6:00AM, we are out for our final game drive at Addo, not much in the way of animals - more ostriches, lightening, and some rain is the highlight of the outing. A quick breakfast, and we are out again onto the open road.

Distance travelled this entry: 600 Km.

Distance moved on trip this entry: 600 Km

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