For breakfast we had bacon, egg, a kind of sausage with a lot of marjoram, coffee, rooibos tea and “powdered juice”. Mel didn’t really like the sausage, but with a little ketchup it was quite bearable.

We left Jeffrey’s Bay for Addo Park. There were no special incidents on the way. Mel only forced Andreas to stop or pull into a car park every 300m or so. She was thirsty for beer and wanted to buy some in a liquor store. Alcohol can generally only be bought in special shops and only at certain times – but because of Covid, these rules were tightened even more. After the third of these shops had also closed, we both realised that it was Sunday – so no beer for us.

Around 12 noon we arrived at the park, filled out the forms, had our temperature taken and, as always, denied the question of whether we were carrying firearms. After we had paid the 700 Rand entrance fee, the gate opened for us and we could start our game drive.

Unlike what we were used to, most of the paths in the park were asphalted. Only occasionally did Andreas enjoy gravel and dust roads and so the “African massage” was absent on this day. All routes were well signposted and we rarely needed a map to check whether we were still on the right track.

The park was abundant with elephants, zebras, ostriches, kudus and more. We also saw some turtles and a dead hyena. On one or two occasions we had to stop because buffaloes or elephants were crossing the road. Especially the pachyderms were calm themselves – even at close range.

  • Almost a little too close
  • A little fight between teenagers
  • Division of labour in “rolling the poo”
  • The circle of life

After leaving the park, we drove about 200km to Port Alfred. There we stayed with a nice, talkative, older gentleman in his garage, which had been converted into a guest flat. We had dinner at Ocean Basket, only a 30-minute walk away. We had super tasty seafood with plenty of piri piri and garlic.