ADDO UPDATE - MARCH 2010

Addo National Park has been extremely dry up to the middle of March 2010 with the effects of the drought clearly visable on both the bush as well as the grass plains. More recently, it had a few thunder storms with the latest one (Friday 26 March 2010) varying between 24 and 40 mm over the park. Although the park needs a lot more rain, these showers have already made a significant difference to the grass and now an increasing number of grazers (Kudu, zebra, hartebeest, buffalo) come out of the bush to graze the open grass areas, particularly in the late afternoon. Even so, the response of various tourists range from "have seen everything" (including lion) to "not much".

I include a few pictures of what we saw over the weekend of 26 to 28 March including the biggest rock monitor I have ever seen.

A bit of advice for people traveling to the park from Port Elizabeth, is that entering the park from the Colchester end at the Mathyolweni gate (37 km from Port Elizabeth) takes you through a scenic route and through the Addo park to the Main Gate (38 km) in stead of the "normal" rather unpleasant drive from Port Elizabeth to the Main Gate. Just a word of warning. Make sure that, should you enter through the Mathyolweni gate, you allow yourself adequate time (at 40 km/h) to reach the game camp exit gate at Main Camp before closing time (18h00 in winter and 18h30 in summer.