I got to lend somebody's camera on a trip to Addo a little while back. I love my camera but having a DSLR in my hand with a proper zoom lens was awesome and it allowed me to snap this Cape Weaver without any blur and a nice DOF. Oh how I wish I had a DSLR to take pics like this all the time.
Looks can be deceiving. You tend to think young pretty girls would only be interested in fashion, nightlife, tanning on the beach, spending time in the shops and hanging out with their friends. Yes, yes, I know I'm generalizing but I'm trying to get to a point so bare with me. Late last year I hosted a travel blogger visit to Port Elizabeth and the surrounding area and the first blogger of the five to arrive was Rachel Lang, known…
I haven't done a "Random ..." post in ages, so for today I'm doing three Random elephant did you knows. An elephant's trunk, which is a fusion of their nose and upper lip, contains over 100,000 different muscles. African Elephants also have two finger like features on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items with. Indian Elephants on the other hand only has one of those "fingers". An elephant can lift up to 350kg with their trunks. Elephants have…
Addo Elephant National Park boats with over 450 different bird species making it not just great for elephant and game watching, but also bird watching. I'm not always too bothered with trying to photograph birds with my superzoom as it isn't really fast enough to take proper pictures of them, but on my last visit I had a borrowed SLR with a long lens and snapped away at anything that moved. One of those was this Malachite Sunbird. The adult…
I've been in the tourism industry for 16 years and first started out working as a tourist guide back in 1998. Back then I used to go to Addo Elephant National Park sometimes as often as 5 or 6 times a week and people used to ask if I didn't get tired of going there. I did get tired of the drive to and from the park but I would never get tired of the park itself. It quickly became one…
International visitors to South Africa all has Kruger Park on their lists of places to see in the country but what many of them don't realise is that you can get just as good an experience in the Eastern Cape. Addo Elephant National Park is probably one of the most under rated game parks in the country with perceptions changing as soon as people get there. You may not be able to spend 4 or 5 days there like in Kruger, but…
I like pizza... and braaivleis... and burgers... and... and... and... Elephants like a whole bunch of things as well. One of those things is Spekboom (Portulacaria afra). Spekboom, also called the elephant bush, forms part of the Subtropical Thicket biome and is prevalent in the Addo Elephant National Park. In actual fact its one of the reasons why Addo has such a good elephant carrying capacity as the Spekboom is a succulent and also supplements their water intake. Although the Spekboom normally…
Succulents always surprise me with the beautiful flowers that they produce specially when they grow in dry and arid areas. The flowering succulent in the picture was growing next to the path to our room at Kuzuko Lodge in the northern part of the Addo Elephant National Park.After reading the post, Alan Fogarty of Alan Tours helped me out a bit with the name: Crassula ovata or Kerky bush, Beestebul, iPhewula also commonly known as the "Botterboom"
When this boytjie matures a bit more he will be a really impressive bull. Not that he isn't already. He's only problem is that he is an Addo bull so he will never have the huge tusks that the Kruger bulls have.
A couple of young bulls interacting at the Hapoor Waterhole in the Addo Elephant National Park just like a couple of young men would at their local watering hole