Big 5 Travel

From the Wild Coast to other beautiful places by the coast of Eastern Cape. We now started our travel along the Sunshine Coast that stretches from East London to Tsitsikamma.

First stop after Morgan Bay, was Port Alfred, midway between East London and Port Elizabeth. We travelled first 7 km on gravel road to reach a normal tar road – R349 – then a bit on N2 – and took off to N72 along the coast.

Port Alfred – a small seaside town with a nice marina and lovely beaches.

We tried to get accommodation by the beach, and asked at several guesthouses, but all were fully booked. We ended up at the Halyards Hotel which turned out to be a very good choice. Excellent location by a little marina with nice views from the hotel. Lovely pool, good restaurant and nice large rooms with balconies.

Our rooms were only available for one night so the next day we tried to find another place by the sea. Just 27 km further along the sea side, we came to KENTON-ON-SEA – that is also a little seaside town with only 5000 inhabitants.
From the local tourist information office we got information on accommodation in the area. We drove over to Oyster Box Beach House 4*.
This was a lovely house. We got two rooms on the 3rd floor. On the first floor – a big kitchen and large lovely living room that lead to a large terrace and a swimming pool – and a stunning view of the river mouth and the beach!
The hostess did not stay at this house, it was entirely for the guests use.

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It was just the middle of the day and time for the beach !

Stine enjoyed a swim in this lagoon by the river mouth. A good choice for children!

Exploring the beach area:

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Black African Oystercatcher – that does not catch oysters for living, but limpets and mussels..

The choice of restaurants was not great in the area, the best one nearest the beach house was Homewoods, 2 km away. A rustic place with wooden tables and chairs, but good food at a great location.It is close to the beach by the mouth of another river.

ADDO ELEPHANT PARK

After two great days at Kenton – is was time to visit the Addo Elephant Park. I really recommend a visit to the park if you travel in this part of Eastern Cape. It is located north of Port Elizabeth and has become the third largest National Park in South Africa.

We wanted to get accommodation near the park, and tried first Protea Hotel Addo, 16 km north of the park. It was not as we expected and too far from the park. The Protea Hotels (now owned by the Mariott Group) are usually very good, have nice rooms and great locations, but not this one. It is maybe different now.
Anyway, as we were right outside the park, we decided to visit the park right away. This is one of the parks that is included in the Wild Card, so we used it to get a day pass.
Started with lunch at the Main Camp which was near the entrance. We also asked if they had any accommodation units available, but everything was fully booked.
It is easy to go on self drive safari in this park. We used the visitor map and tried one of loops. We stopped at the first lookout where we could step out of our car. A lot of elephants were by the watering hole.

One elephant was quite close to the lookout, eating from the trees

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Elephants, buffaloes, warthogs, tsetsebees, zebras and ostriches were some of the wildlife we spotted on the little round trip in the park the first day. In the afternoon we exited the park through the South Gate of the main section. We had to find a place to stay for the night, and tried a B&B in Colchester, south of Addo.
We got two rooms at Dungbeetle River Lodge, a four star Guest House located on the bank of the scenic Sundays River, only 5 kilometers from the Colchester entrance of the Addo Elephant National Park.

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Wonderful views of the Sundays River that flows at the foot of the lodge, and to the famous Alexandria Dune Field on the other side of the river.

Unfortunately we could only stay here one night, but the owner managed to get
some rooms for us at another Guest House only 2 km away. So after an excellent breakfast we took off to our new home for the next two days – Happy Jackal Guest House. This was also a 4*accommodation, even closer to the south entrance of Addo Elephant Park. A lovely place, with an outdoor pool and spacious and nicely decorated rooms.

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My daughter and I were off to the park again – and drove to the south entrance – Matyholweny Gate – at Colchester. There were nearly no animals in the south section at that time, but it was the easiest way to reach the main section.

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I have never seen so many tortoises as in this park. In late afternoons we saw different species of tortoise moving slowly out in to the roads.

We did not see the Big5 , but rhino, leopard and lions are common sights. You are most likely to spot leopards and lions at dawn and dusk.

We were happy all the same. This second day we spotted about 140 elephants all together, I have never seen so many elephants any other place. It is amazing to watch them drink and taking bath in the water, and watch male elephants play-fight with each other.

There was a nice restaurant at the neighbouring lodge “Elephant Footprint” which we tried that evening. We tasted both meat of kudu, warthog and ostrich. I think the ostrich steak tasted best – this was also most tender.
On our way back to the guest house we heard some strange bawling sounds – almost like children crying. Could it be from jackals?
When we had breakfast next morning we asked Liz , the hostess at Happy Jackals Guesthouse, and we were right. It was the sound of jackals. That day we actually saw some on the other side of the river, opposite the guesthouse.

The last day we relaxed by the pool before lunchtime, and afterwards one last time in the Elephant park. We saw many elephants that day and also many of the same animals that we had spotted the previous two days; warthogs, zebras, ostrich, hartebeest, jackals and tortoises.
In the evening Liz made a great dinner for all the guests – who came from Germany, Wales and Poland in addition to us Norwegians. – A very good meal in a lively atmosphere!

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#10 – Visiting GARDEN ROUTE -Jeffrey´s Bay – Plettenberg Bay – Wilderness – Mossel Bay