The Mountains (Eastern Cape)

It rained heavily right through the night and the next morning was overcast but at least we awoke refreshed in our chalet. By sheer luck we had been given the one  which was deepest into the park so we had just one neighbour. It had two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, lounge/diner and a pleasant patio with a lovely views of the mountains - a great result when at 7pm the night before we were looking at a very wet night in the roof tent!

Mountain Zebra is a small park and by its name is a haven for the Mountain Zebra, one of the worlds rarest animals. The park has 350 at the last count, plus Black Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Springbok and the ubiquitous Baboon. In addition they have recently re-introduced Black Rhino and Buffalo but they remained  out of sight.

MZ sits in the high flat plains of the Karoo surrounded by mountains and in good weather would be lovely, however today was not one of those days. A lot of the roads in the park were closed so we decided to hop into Craddock to stock up on provisions and then do a short game drive in the afternoon.

On the game drive we could see more rain clouds gathering in the distance and it gradually became very stormy looking. The drive that was open was along the high point in the park so you got a pretty good view of the surrounding area. We arrived back at the reception at around 6pm and went into the shop for Sue to buy another Elephant bracelet (don't ask how many this is!) and by the time we came out it was pitch dark and raining cats and dogs so there was nothing for it but to sit out the storm and enjoy a nice meal in the restaurant and watch a DVD on the laptop.

The next day was a lot brighter so we phoned Addo Elephant Park to see how their weather was and if they had any vacancies? They warned it was raining heavily plus they had no vacancies for at least four days so advised us to stay put - we were starting  to get cheesed off with the weather and the vacancies issue as both were holding us back but at least we could remain in our nice dry chalet for another day.

Gluttons for punishment we decided to take a short walk out from the back of our chalet, however mindful of what happened at Knysna we kept a close watch on the sky! Sure enough as we start to climb into the hills the weather turns from Sunshine to cloud and we start to feel a few drops of rain so we hot foot it back and go for a drive instead.

At last the next morning is nice and sunny so we decide to drive over to Addo anyway and see if we can find a campsite in the surrounding area. We reached the nearby Sundays River Valley  just after midday and found a lovely private campsite at an old citrus farm called appropriately 'Homestead'. We were greeted by Mrs Whittle the owner who says she has plenty of room to camp but apologises for what she called in Afrikaans something which sounded like mickies, however not wishing to look totally ignorant we just nodded and said everything was fine.

With the wildcard we can enter most of South Africa's reserves any number of times free of charge so instead of putting up camp we decide to head straight off  for Addo, which is about 15kms away, to enjoy the afternoon there.

The great herds of Elephant which existed in the Sundays River Valley region had been decimated by white hunters in the 1700s & 1800s when the Ivory trade boomed. By the late 19th Century there was increasing pressure from the influx of farmers who were in constant conflict with the Elephants over water and raids on their crops. In 1919 the SA government succumbed to the mounting pressure and appointed a Major Pretorius to exterminate what Elephants remained. Pretorius killed about 120 Elephants between 1919 - 1920 until public pressure forced the government to end the killing by when only 16 Elephant remained in the thick Addo bush which Major Pretorius  described as a "hunters hell". 

Addo was eventually proclaimed a national park in 1931 when the Elephant had dwindled to just 11 animals but today thankfully the enlarged park provides sanctuary to over 350 as well as Buffalo, Black Rhino and numerous species of antelope, in 2003 Lion and Spotted Hyena were re-introduced to the area for the first time in over 100 years.

The only problem is this amount of Elephant eat a hell of a lot of vegetation and consequently produce a veritable mountain of s..t! This in turn creates its own disposal challenges so in Addo the endemic flightless Dung Beetle is a treasured species and Addo is the only park we have ever visited where the Dung Beetle has been given protected status and the right of way!

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