02/06/2025
Hi Just a little back ground on the latest post on this page. We decided that it was time to set out for the northern section of the Addo Elephant National Park, an area that starts in the valley of the Sundays river just north of the village of Kirkwood where the entrance is embedded in the foothills of the Zuurberg mountains. We, Angelika my partner and the runner of all things to do with the company and a lot more to boot, then it is the girls in the office Theresa and Maryke and Anthony who has that uncanny ability to move seamlessly between guiding our guests through nature reserves to helping with administration in the office with the myriad of different tasks that is the operation of a tour company.
We have been doing tours into the Kabouga / Bedrogfontein (to deceive fountain) / Lake Darlington wilderness area for a good number of years.
It was however after the recent translocation of 42 elephants into this area from the Addo main camp area that we decided that it was time to explore the park with some of the guides. Graeme the crazy botanist, bird brain Barry, our avian specialist and Anthony our cool calm and collected all rounder had as yet not had the opportunity to visit this wonderful, wilderness.
We arrived at the gates from Port Elizabeth at about 9 am where it was still a chilly 10 degrees or so, checked in at the gate which is always such a pleasure. No rush, no other visitors insight and dealt with the lady in the office as if we were the first guests to cross her door step in a month. It has always been a pleasure to check in at Kabouga, still don't know why because the fee for the 4 x 4 route makes a fair dent in the bank account. Its well worth it though.
First up was the Mvubu (Hippo) camp site where we stopped for coffee on a well positioned, if rather rickety platform overlooking the Sundays river where Hippo tend to while away the daylight hours immersed in the turbid waters. The Coffee was equally turbid and delicious. The camp site has now been fenced off because of the elephants but the hippo still have access as evidenced by a fresh pile of scattered hippo poo.
We then went off to inspect the Kabouga cottage a wonderfully tiny cottage that sleep 5 people and presently the sum total of beds in this huge area. Luxuries consist of a gas stove and fridge, an old dilapidated reservoir under a low hanging canopy of tangled shrubs for a braai area and lies next to a second reservoir half filled with clear water home to a number of Rana like frogs and their off spring which seconds as the swimming pool when the monitor lizards aren't using it as a sun bed. This enchanted forest lies under the tranquil eye of a large and stately Yellowwood tree with a gurgling stream that fill the reservoir and supplies the water through a filtration system to the cottage. Lovelier place in the wilderness you could not find. The whole is surrounded by an amphitheater of red glowing cliffs which abound with rock dassies and the local Baboon troop play sentinel.
We unfortunately left soon after arriving as we had a long way to travel....... Next episode when I get a chance. Cheers
