April 12, Cinsta to Addo Elephant National Park

Sunday April 12 - Day 69 - Cintsa to Addo Elephant National Park

Your trivia for the day is that this is the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

We only have a four hour drive today so we try to sleep in but we are both rested and up by 8AM. Dressed, we head for breakfast and this meal is also well done. They have all the usual breakfast foods and we enjoy a plate of scrambled eggs, English style bacon, juice, sweet rolls, tea and coffee.

Packed up and checked out by 9:30AM we backtrack to the N2 and head West toward King William’s Town where we stop for gas. Our next stop is Grahamstown, billed as a quaint Victorian town, where we stop for groceries for the next two nights. As we are parking, an attractive black lady holding a baby asks where we are from and is curious why we are in South Africa and how do we like it so far. We tell her we think the country is beautiful and the people are nice and most helpful. She smiles and says SA is much better than the press it gets and wishes us a safe journey and please come back again.

The store is crowded at just after noon on this Sunday and we are disappointed in the stock we find. "No olives long time now!" There is no sandwich bread as we know it and very little red meat; not that we wanted any! We buy a package of rolls that are store baked along with eggs and a few other other makings we lack for tonight’s supper, breakfast and lunch tomorrow, etc.

Set with food, we explore Grahamstown. It is clean as large towns go and has some interesting, well cared for buildings, the oldest we find is dated 1820 with many others ranging to the late 1800s. There is a Rhodes College branch here as well as museum and monument to the 1820 Settlers. The museum is closed so we get back on the road and continue toward Addo Elephant National Park.

The GPS is a little confused but the brown National Park signs know where we are going and we arrive and check in about 3PM. Carolyn has requested Cabin #38, the last one in the top row of cabins and we find it with no trouble. These facilities are on a par with the one we had at Berg-en-Dal in Kruger National Park, but much newer. It has a nice bath, adequate kitchen and utensils, table and chairs, twin beds and a nice covered patio, with another table and two nice chairs just inside the elephant-proof fence and overlooking a large bowl in the hills. Maybe something large will come for a visit!

We unload the necessaries and make some ice water in our travel mugs. About 4:30PM we head out on a game drive but must be back in the camp by 6PM when the gate closes. Right off the bat, we see at least 100 elephants all grouped together near the northern edge of the fence, what a site! We then drive two of the northern most loops and see numerous zebras, a jackal, Kudu, several types of bucks, and numerous interesting birds. It is close to closing time, but we decide to check out the fence line again and see what the elephants are doing. Some are still in the area but have moved farther away from the road and finally, as we are heading to the camp gate, a huge leopard tortoise. We return to our cabin right at 6PM and just as the sun is disappearing below the ridge line to our west.

Carolyn starts our dinner of spaghetti and corn-on-the-cob while Dick mixes a libation. We sit on the patio and watch night come on quickly as it does in this part of the world. With it too dark to see much we turn to dinner and also eat it on the patio. It is dark and the stars are outstanding. There is nothing like gazing up at the Milky Way in a black sky!! This is one of the great things about Africa! Dishes washed, no internet and a cool room means that it is time for a shower and bed.