Addo Elephant Park Full-Day Safari from Port Elizabeth

Addo Elephant National Park: from a handful of elephants to a stronghold

Addo Elephant National Park lies in the Sundays River valley of the Eastern Cape, about an hour's drive north-east of Port Elizabeth. It was proclaimed in 1931 to protect the last few elephants of the region after decades of conflict with farmers, and from that tiny remnant the herd has grown into a thriving population of several hundred, making Addo the surest place in the country to see elephants at close range. The park has since expanded across the Zuurberg mountains and down to the coast, and today it is the third-largest national park in South Africa.

Addo is malaria-free, which makes it the ideal safari for families with young children and for travellers who prefer not to take prophylaxis. Is Addo worth visiting? For anyone on the Garden Route or the Eastern Cape, it is the natural answer to the question of where to see elephants, and this full-day tour covers the best of the main game area without an overnight stay.

The waterholes: Hapoor Dam and the heart of the elephant country

The main section of the park is a rolling landscape of dense valley thicket, dominated by spekboom, the succulent shrub that elephants feed on, broken by open grassland and a chain of waterholes. Hapoor Dam is the most famous of them, named after a legendary bull, and on a warm day whole herds come down to drink, bathe and spray dust within a few metres of the vehicles. Other waterholes such as Domkrag, Marion Baree and Carol's Rest are on the guide's circuit and often reward a patient wait.

Our guide reads the signs along the sandy roads, listens to the radio reports from other vehicles and times the waterhole visits for the middle of the day when elephants are thirstiest. The 4x4 has a window seat for every guest and stops as long as the sighting deserves. Elephants are almost always seen, but no sighting can be guaranteed.

Beyond elephants: the Big Five and the smaller residents

Elephants are the headline, but Addo is a Big Five park. Lions were reintroduced to the main section and are seen regularly, usually resting in the shade in the heat of the day; spotted hyena, black rhino, buffalo and leopard are present too, the last two elusive in the thick bush. Herds of Burchell's zebra, red hartebeest, eland, kudu and warthog are everywhere, and the stately secretary bird, ostriches and birds of prey patrol the open areas.

Addo also protects the flightless dung beetle, a species found almost nowhere else, which has right of way on the park roads; your guide will slow down to show you one rolling its ball. The tour visits the underground hide and the viewing deck at the main camp, where a floodlit waterhole draws animals in the late afternoon.

Lunch in the park and the pace of the day

Lunch is included and taken inside the park at the main camp, with a view over the waterhole, so the day never leaves the bush. Light refreshments are provided during the morning drive, and there are clean rest stops with restrooms at the camp and at some picnic sites. The pace is unhurried: a nine-hour day gives time for the full morning loop, the lunch break and a different circuit in the afternoon when the light is at its best for photographs.

Addo opening hours vary slightly by season, with gates opening around sunrise and closing around sunset; our tour is timed inside these hours. Bring a camera with a zoom, binoculars, a hat, sunscreen and a light jacket, as mornings can be cool even in summer and the vehicle windows are opened at sightings.

Port Elizabeth, Jeffreys Bay and how to get to Addo

Port Elizabeth, officially Gqeberha, is the gateway city of the Eastern Cape, with flights of about two hours from Johannesburg and under an hour and a half from Cape Town. The main gate at Addo is about seventy kilometres by road, roughly an hour's drive, and the southern Matyholweni gate near Colchester is closer still, about forty-five minutes. Jeffreys Bay, the surfing town west of the city, is about an hour further, so guests staying there are collected first.

An Addo day trip from Port Elizabeth with a guide saves you the park entry queue, the navigation and the guesswork of where the animals are. The best time to visit Addo is the dry winter from May to September, when the thicket is thinner and animals gather at the waterholes, but elephants are seen all year, and summer brings newborn calves and long, warm evenings.