Winner Luxury Elephant Encounter

CONGRATULATIONS to Charna Chapman of South Africa who has won a once-in-a-lifetime exper­i­ence at the lux­uri­ous Addo Elephant Back Safaris & Lodge — 2 nights for 2 per­sons in lux­uri­ous 4 star accom­mod­a­tion, sump­tu­ous cuisine and ele­phant encoun­ters, in exquis­ite nat­ural sur­round­ings. The prize includes accom­mod­a­tion for 2 per­sons, all meals, ele­phant back rides, ele­phant bed­time encounter and two bottles of wine.

Charna, your voucher is on its way. Please con­tact Addo Elephant Back Safaris & Lodge to redeem your voucher (valid until 20 November 2011). We’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay! Continued

The Kouga Wilderness – experience it by land or by water

Eden to Addo

I know someone who has kayaked along the Kouga River. He describes his trip as a com­plete escape from civil­isa­tion and some­thing you have to do once in a life­time. Camping on the banks of the river, which leads through isol­ated wil­der­ness the beauty of which will cap­ture your heart and enslave you to the memor­ies of what it is to be alone on a river, is now top of his list of the incred­ible get­aways he has exper­i­enced (and he's exper­i­enced a number).

The Kouga Wilderness is prob­ably best explored this way. It hasn't been described by some as 'inhos­pit­able' for noth­ing – tangled rav­ine forests, sheer rock faces that scream to be abseiled, whilst beau­ti­ful from the tran­quil, rel­at­ive safety of the river, are rather ardu­ous on foot. Continued

I ♥ Addo Because...

I ♥ Addo Because...

Hi, I’m Molly O’Hagan Ward from The Colonial on Arundel in Addo in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Addo IS BEST KNOWN FOR The Addo Elephant National Park which offers a wide vari­ety of game view­ing, out­door adven­ture, accom­mod­a­tion and cul­tural experiences.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Zuurkop in the Addo Elephant National Park over­look­ing the Zuurberg Mountains and the Addo Plains.
THE BEST wild­life PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN while under­tak­ing a private safari with my hus­band Conor, a registered guide, who will give you an out­stand­ing exper­i­ence in the 160,000 hec­tare wil­der­ness area of the Addo Elephant National Park. Continued

Win a Luxury Elephant Encounter (Closed)

Elephant Back Safaris

WIN a once-in-a-lifetime exper­i­ence at the lux­uri­ous Addo Elephant Back Safaris & Lodge — 2 nights for 2 per­sons in lux­uri­ous 4 star accom­mod­a­tion, sump­tu­ous cuisine and ele­phant encoun­ters, in exquis­ite nat­ural surroundings.

Addo Elephant Back Safaris & Lodge is loc­ated a short dis­tance from Port Elizabeth, bor­der­ing the Greater Addo Elephant National Park, in an exclus­ive malaria-free con­servancy. The Tented Camp is per­fectly designed to blend dis­creetly into its sur­round­ing val­ley bushveld envir­on­ment; the remark­ably spa­cious, soph­ist­ic­ated suites — some nestled in the Yellowwood forest and oth­ers set on a hill­side offer­ing extraordin­ary views — are elev­ated on wooden decks each with an out­door spa bath. Luxuriously dec­or­ated to evoke Hemingway’s Africa of yes­teryear, this is an oasis of calm afford­ing quiet reflec­tion against the tran­quil back­drop of the African bush where gir­affe, zebra, wilde­beest and eland browse and graze at your door­step. All meals of the day can be enjoyed at our open-sided res­taur­ant which incor­por­ates a bar area and open-air boma, all over­look­ing the ele­phants’ much loved waterhole.

The Prize

Valued at R10 000, the prize includes:

• Accommodation for 2 per­sons shar­ing for 2 con­sec­ut­ive nights
• All meals
• Elephant back rides
• Elephant bed­time encounter
• Continued

Winner 2 Nights for 8 People at the Luxurious 5-Star Graded Addo Afrique Estate

CONGRATULATIONS to Gaynor Daniels of South Africa who has won a 2 night stay for up to 8 people at Addo Afrique Estate private game reserve, loc­ated in the malaria-free Greater Addo area of the Eastern Cape, over­look­ing the Addo Elephant National Park. The prize includes self cater­ing accom­mod­a­tion for up to 8 people shar­ing for 2 con­sec­ut­ive nights at Addo Afrique Elephant Lodge, and but­ler service.

Gaynor, your voucher is on its way. Please con­tact Addo Afrique Elephant Lodge to redeem the voucher (valid until 15 February 2011). We’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay! Continued

Win 2 Nights for 8 People at the Luxurious 5-Star Graded Addo Afrique Estate (closed)

WIN a 2 night stay for up to 8 people at Addo Afrique Estate private game reserve, loc­ated in the malaria-free Greater Addo area of the Eastern Cape, over­look­ing Addo Elephant National Park.

Addo Afrique offers two 5 star graded lodges — Addo Afrique Giraffe Lodge and Addo Afrique Elephant Lodge — each designed for optimum game view­ing. Vast pic­ture win­dows lead­ing on to spa­cious wooden decks afford breath­tak­ing pan­or­amic views of the Addo plains – ideal for watch­ing herds of anim­als, includ­ing buck, ele­phant and buf­falo as they come to graze at sun­rise. Continued

Addo Elephant Park — a commune with elephants

I've read about Addo Elephant Park, had to listen to friends enthuse about their vis­its, stud­ied numer­ous awe-inspiring pic­tures taken at Addo Elephant Park, but never vis­ited. It just seemed that much too far away from our base in Cape Town. But our recent road trip to Hogsback put paid to that assump­tion. Addo made its way onto our itin­er­ary with little trouble, given my pas­sion for ele­phants and the thrill at my son being able to see these beasts of the land up close.

The major plus of the park is its prox­im­ity to Port Elizabeth. Literally, the pas­sage there takes an hour. It's an inter­est­ing jour­ney too, in the sense that the road is pretty des­ol­ate, not in an ideal con­di­tion, and exits PE along the R335 littered with stra­tegic­ally placed gov­ern­ment houses and fences dec­or­ated with plastic bags ... Continued

Addo, addo, addo!

If it weren't for the Addo Elephant National Park, Addo would still be an obscure little town off the beaten track, roughly an hour from Port Elizabeth. It really is some­thing of a one-horse town, and loc­als use the police sta­tion as a land­mark, rather than the town, which isn't sur­pris­ing given that it is almost the same size.

That said, it isn't the town one comes here to exper­i­ence. And the area between the town of Addo and the Addo Elephant National Park, which is a ten minute drive away, is filled with a series of res­taur­ants, Addo accom­mod­a­tion ven­ues and excit­ing places to visit that include any num­ber of wild anim­als. It is also the burial place of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, beloved author of Jock of the Bushveld, who lived in the Addo area dur­ing the lat­ter years of his life, which lends the area an ele­ment of his­tory ... Continued

Addo Elephants Photographs

Todays pho­to­graphs are of ele­phants in the fam­ous Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The ori­ginal Elephant sec­tion of the Addo Park was pro­claimed in 1931, when only eleven ele­phants remained in the area ... today it is proudly sanc­tu­ary to over 450 ele­phants. Continued

Addo Elephant Park Photograph

Situated in a mal­aria free area just one hour's drive from the South African coastal city of Port Elizabeth, the mag­ni­fi­cently diverse Addo Elephant Park offers a wide vari­ety of game view­ing, out­door adven­ture, accom­mod­a­tion and cul­tural exper­i­ences. You will be amazed at the vari­ety of South Africa Wildlife that can be exper­i­enced in one eas­ily access­ible des­tin­a­tion ... Continued

Addo Elephants Photograph

To beau­ti­ful not to share — this stun­ning pho­to­graph of a pair of Elephants in the Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape was sent to us by Diane Morrison. The trunk of the African ele­phant has two finger-like struc­tures at its tip. The tusks, another remark­able fea­ture, are greatly elong­ated incisors Continued

Featured Family-friendly Game Lodge

RiverBend Lodge

The first in our fea­ture on "Family-friendly Game Lodges" is the 5-Star RiverBend Lodge in the Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape. Children of all ages are wel­come at River Bend. Various activ­it­ies are on offer includ­ing a play­room where hours of fun can be had.

The team at RiverBend are geared towards every need and chil­dren will be taken on walks with their guide, bak­ing bis­cuits with the chef or doing mini treat­ments with the Beauty Therapist. There is also a ded­ic­ated chan­nel on their tele­vi­sion net­work on which chil­dren are able to choose from a selec­tion of videos to be played.

When you need some time to yourselves and your chil­dren will not be join­ing you on a game drive or for din­ner, RiverBend have trained child mind­ers to take care of your pre­cious ones whilst you relax and enjoy the beauty of the Addo Elephant Park. Continued