Addo Elephant National Park

Firefly the Travel Guy / Port Elizabeth Daily Photo

Penguins on St Croix Island

A little while ago I had the fantastic opportunity to go on a cruise on Algoa Bay with Raggy Charters and it felt like we hit the jackpot that day. Whales, dolphins, bait balls, penguins, and the cherry on top, a killer whale. The cruise was the first opportunity for me to see St Croix Island up close. St Croix Island is home to the largest breeding colony of African penguins in the world. At one stage there were 60…

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18/09/2020
Read more about the article Darlington Dam
Firefly the Travel Guy

Darlington Dam

A few months ago we spent a weekend on a friend's farm near Darlington Dam and he took us for a quick drive to see what the dam looked like. Unfortunately we didn't get to go to the dam wall itself, so my picture is of the runoff below the wall. Darlington Dam, also referred to as Lake Mentz is located off the main road between Kirkwood and Jansenville and was completed in 1922. The primary reason for the dam being…

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04/09/2020
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Paddling on the Sundays River

The Sundays River Valley and Addo is synonymous with the Addo Elephant National Park and have never really been a holiday destination unless you went to visit the Addo Park.  But this has all changed.  The Addo area is about so much more than just elephants these days.  It has actually developed into a holiday destination all on its own.  Addo and its elephants are still the big attraction, but the area around the park has also turned into an adventure and activity mecca.  Zip…

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05/02/2016
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Sunset on the Zuurberg Mountains

An afternoon trip to Addo for an early evening meeting had me arrive in the area an hour or so early.  Problem? Not at all.  Doesn't matter where you are, if you have a passion for travel and is a Geocacher to boot, there will always be something to see, do or find.  This day was no different.  I decided to take a leisurely drive up the Zuurberg Pass to pick up a Geocache I hadn't done before plus it's…

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16/10/2015
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Addo Palace Ndebele Private Reserve pictorial

Just before peak season hit us I was on a social media workshop road trip in the Karoo and Addo areas.  The night before the workshop in Addo I got to stay at Addo Palace in the Ndebele Private Reserve bordering the Addo Elephant National Park.  It's always nice to stay and experience somewhere new and this was no different. Ndebele Private Resevre is a 2500 acre game farm in the foothills of the Zuurberg Mountains and about 30 minutes…

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05/01/2015
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A Pale Chanting Goshawk in Addo

I have never been a big bird expert.  When I started working as a tourist guide I went to a lot of effort to increase my birding knowledge, but a LBJ (little brown job) and an Overtheroadian were still the most common answers I gave when something flashed across the road as we drove along somewhere.  Addo Elephant National Park has a bird checklist of over 400 species with about 200 occurring within the main game area. In all the years that I…

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16/12/2014
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I miss my ellie friends

Way back when I started working in the tourism industry I worked as a freelance tourist guide and one of the companies that used me had tours going to Addo Elephant National Park just about every day.  That means that I got to go to the park 5 or 6 times a week and I never got tired of it.  These days I don't get to visit Addo nearly as much as I would like to and when I had…

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04/11/2014
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Ziplining in Addo on the longest double zipline in Africa

The first thing people think of when they hear the name Addo is elephants.  On that front the Addo Elephant National Park is doing an awesome job attracting people to the Sundays River Valley.  But the Addo area is so much more than elephants and the rest of the big 5.  More than just animals for that matter.  The whole Sundays River Valley is a beautiful area with scenic drives and views, history, great eateries and a wide variety of accommodation…

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30/09/2014
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Tuskless elephant

The majority of the female elephants in the Addo Elephant National Park are tuskless.  The general opinion amongst laymen is that it's because of selective hunting of the elephants with big tusks in the late 19th and early 20th century while others think it may be due to the vegetation (structure and/or nutrient composition) of the area.  Long term records have been used to assess trends and it has been found that although it could have played a roll, selective…

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20/06/2014