On Saturday, we went to The Addo Elephant National Park in Addo which is about one hour from Port Elizabeth. When the British settled here, many people were farmers with large plots of land. Addo is an area where there were originally 5,000 elephants living and that is where the farmers settled as well and were given rights to kill any elephant on their property. In the early 1900s, they realized that there were only 12 elephants left in the area and they knew that conservation efforts were necessary. Also, hunters from Britain and the United States would travel to South Africa to hunt the "Big Five," which are the five most dangerous animals to hunt: elephants, lions, leopards, rhinoceros, and water buffalo.
Addo Elephant Park is still home to the big five. Now, the area is 20,000 hectares which is over 49,000 acres. There is a fence around the entire property to contain the animals inside although our guide told us that there really is no way to confine an elephant. We rode around in a vehicle and we got to see many exciting animals throughout the day including elephants, zebras, warthogs, water buffaloes, red heart beasts, kudo, elands, and I think that's it. We really wanted to see the lions but there are only two prides on the entire property including only 14 lions total, so they stayed hidden. Here are some of my favorite encounters with the elephants:
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