South Africa Safari.info - Garden Route Safari Reserve Lodges

GARDEN ROUTE PRIVATE RESERVES

ADDO NATIONAL PARK

ANIMALS & BIRDS

Elephants are wondrous creatures to watch especially at a waterhole. Some facts about elephant's digestion may help to demonstrate why the dung beetle is so important to this park ,and why rangers were very worried about their decline.

Addo Elephant Park was proclaimed in 1931, as a safeguard for the last 11 wild elephants roaming the area. It is now home to over 350 elephants and numerous other species. Addo Elephant Park was so successful that it started to get overcrowded, so surrounding land needed to be acquired. With local co-operation, adjacent farms were purchased and the new Greater Addo National Park will soon cover 1.2 million acres (492,000 ha).

This will become an extraordinary park, because the terrain will go from the dense inland valley bushveld of the Sundays River, all the way until it reaches the sea. It will also include a 296,500 acre (120,000 ha) marine reserve encompassing islands containing Africa's largest populations of penguins and gannets.

This park will be one of the few places on earth containing the 'Big 7'; elephants, lions, buffaloes, leopards, rhinos, whales and great white sharks!

An adult elephant deposits upwards of 330 pounds (150 kilos) of dung every day - about one consignment every 15 minutes. Prior to the expansion of the park, this meant that the dung beetles had an enormous clearing up job, and they were just not coping. The flightless dung beetle is found almost exclusively in this park (other dung beetles can fly), and are important to the ecology of the area.

No citrus fruits may be taken into Addo as elephants have such a craving for them, that one whiff of an orange could send them crazy, and could mark the end of you and your car. The cruellest irony is that the region has many citrus groves - which is an unkind twist of fate for the Addo elephants!

Black-backed jackal are commonly seen in Addo, and evenings are punctuated by their strident howls. Cape buffalo, black rhino, kudu, eland, red hartebeest and springbok all graze on their preferred grasses or bushes and highly adaptable leopards are there but rarely seen. With the consolidation of the land expansion, lion will be reintroduced to complete the 'Big Five'.

Furthermore, with the park now stretching to the shores of the Indian Ocean, whales and dolphins will swell the viewing opportunities.
Addo’s birding opportunities are accentuated by the contrasting habitats of dense thickets interspersed with open grassy areas and wooded kloofs. Look out for martial and crowned eagles, olive bush shrikes, yellowthroated warblers, Cape batis, black korhaan and secretary birds.

SEASONS
This region's temperate climate is influenced by the Indian Ocean, providing rain in equal measures throughout the year.
Spring: Spring is in the air by the end of August and into September. October gets much warmer with the feeling of summer around the corner.
Summer: November to March are hot, and temperatures peak from December to February at around 75°-86°F (24-30°C) or more.
Autumn: Temperatures start cooling down from about April but it can still be very pleasant until June.
Winter: June, July and August are mid-winter months but the days may still be bright and warm, but it gets cold in the evening.

ADDO SPECIALITIES

· Elephants
· Flightless dung beetles
· Black rhino
· Raptors
· Unique
· Private lodges and national parks chalets

FACTS
Addo is approximately 45m (73km) from the major Garden Route city of Port Elizabeth.
This is a non malarial area

GARDEN ROUTE

The Garden Route runs along the Western Cape coast from George to Port Elizabeth, and is so called because of its perpetual lushness. Its appeal is further enhanced by the ridge of folded mountains running along the coast, whose form and flow often resembles ocean waves. The diversity of scenery from exquisite empty beaches to staggering mountain passes, together with an unlimited choice of hotels, guest houses, lodges and country houses, makes this one of the most visited areas in South Africa.

WILDERNESS NATIONAL PARK
Travelling along the coast road, the lushness seems to increase with every mile and the area known as Wilderness, could be mistaken for Switzerland. It is a charming world of lakes, rivers, fens and estuaries surrounded by pine forested slopes dotted with wooden chalets. The only difference is that in Switzerland you won't find the warm and inviting Indian Ocean just across the road.

Nature trails wind through densely wooded forests and along riverbanks and you can canoe through serpentine channels connecting one lake to another. There are even overnight canoe and walking trails in this park.

KNYSNA NATIONAL LAKE AREA
The well-visited town of Knysna, in the heart of the Garden Route, rests by a warm lagoon which ebbs and flows with the tides. The lagoon is dominated by the craggy bastions of the twin Knysna Heads and the Indian Ocean gushes through the narrow entrance formed by these rocks. Viewpoints from the top of the eastern Head give you the dual vistas, over the entire lagoon or out to sea. You may also be lucky enough to see a yacht surf through the narrow channel to the safety of its lagoon mooring. On the western head is a nature trail in the privately owned Featherbed Nature Reserve, accessible only by ferry.

The Knysna National lake Area is not a national park, but is monitored by the Parks Board to make sure that ongoing development is environmentally friendly. The lagoon has borne witness to centuries of trade in timber, ivory and gold, but nowadays the shores are lined with residential areas, a busy waterfront of shops and restaurants, a yacht basin, boat yards and the famous Knysna oyster hatchery.
Boat trips of all sorts can be undertaken and boats can also be hired, but as much of the lagoon is very shallow, it is essential to keep to the buoys marking the deep channel. No inexperienced skipper should attempt to exit the lagoon by way of the Heads, as this is a difficult and dangerous passage strewn with rocks and strong currents.

What makes Knysna such an attractive place is its range of scenery, which includes inland forests and mountains. Little of the massive indigenous forests still exist, and much has been put down to pine forestry, but there are still some areas of tall evergreen Outeniqua yellowwoods and stinkwoods, and deciduous ironwoods, towering over forest tree ferns.

ANIMALS & BIRDS

The exceptionally beautiful Knysna National Lake Area is home to the endangered Knysna seahorse, which clings on to plants with its tail and changes colour to match its surroundings. The sandbanks and salt marshes of the lagoon and river mouth, teem with life and in turn provide food for an immeasurable number of organisms. Whales and dolphins are regular visitors along the entire Garden Route coastline.

Elephant were all but hunted to extinction in the Knysna area and only one remains. She is a grumpy old matriarch who turned down the friendship of some playmates brought in to keep her company.

She now roams the forests alone while the other elephants have been re-located to a wildlife reserve. There are a growing number of private reserves along the Garden Route who have stocked up with game such as elephants, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, buffalo - all of which were indigenous to the area once upon a time.

Many of the woodland birds are surprisingly colourful birds including redbilled woodhoopoe, Knysna woodpecker, paradise flycatcher, Knysna lourie and lesser doublecollared sunbird. While at the lakes, wetlands and lagoon you may see fish eagles, cormorants, kingfishers, blacksmith plovers and Egyptian geese.

SEASONS

The Garden Route's temperate weather falls between two climatic regions of summer and winter rainfall, consequently it rains whenever it feels like it, (mostly at night), which keeps the area perennially green.
Spring: You can feel spring in the air by the end of August and into September. October can be quite mixed because just when you think summer has arrived, another cold front moves in.
Summer: The months of November to March are hotter, with December to February seeing mid-summer daily temperatures around 75°-86°F (24-30°C).
Autumn: Temperatures start cooling down from about April but it can still be very pleasant until June.
Winter: June, July and August are mid-winter months but the days may still be bright and warm, but it gets cold in the evening and cold fronts pull in.

GARDEN ROUTE SPECIALITIES

· Oysters fresh from Knysna lagoon
· Boating and canoe trips
· Scenic viewpoints
· Knysna lourie
· Lone Knysna elephant
· Lush forests
· White sandy beaches

FACTS

This is not a malarial area