Well we returned from our visit to Double Drift game reserve and Addo Elephant Park today. It was a wonderful few days. This post will just be about Double Drift and I'll post some pics and what not from Addo tomorrow.
Double Drift is a game reserve covering over 57,000 acres located about an hour from Hogsback, SA, just south of Alice, SA. They have rhinos, a few elephants, zebra, giraffe and tons more. We've been there once before and had a nice experience, seeing rhino and a bunch of other things. This time we went down on Friday afternoon with Sunette's parents and two other friends. It was a little slow on the sightings, but we did run across this big guy.
After we made one drive, then headed over to some little cottages inside the park overlooking the Great Fish River. The cottages were great and we had a fantastic braai (grill-out) that night under the stars.
The next morning Sunette and I got up before the dawn to make one more drive, then head to Addo. Of course, being in the bush you're more than likely to run into a few neighbors. This guy was waiting for me under the suitcase as we were getting ready to leave.
We ushered him out of course and continued on with the drive. As the sun was coming up there were some gorgeous settings for a couple tree shots. I'm trying to get shots of all the different trees that we'll do a collection of at the house maybe. Here's a silhouette of a Kiepersol Tree and a Thorn Tree. Those things look mean, and they're all over the place.
The drive through the reserve that morning was gorgeous. We didn't see a bunch of animals unfortunately but the Aloes were blooming and made for some nice shots.
We did catch a couple zebra checking us out.
From Double Drift we headed to Addo. Tomorrow I'll post shots and a description of Addo Elephant Park.
Hi Jonathan
Great to see you guys are enjoying South Africa. I look forward to your pics from Addo, we had a great time their a few years ago while we were living in Knysna. Your photographs are brilliant and really capture the feel of the area.
Next time plan to add KwaZulu-Natal to you trip!
Best wishes
Jonathan Payne
Durban
Posted by: Jonathan Payne (Durban) | June 03, 2008 at 02:03 AM
I like that thorn tree. I Do NOT like that scorpion/crab/spider thing. Gives me the willies! Yikes.
Posted by: Danielle | June 03, 2008 at 02:23 AM
Danielle: Yeah the scorpion was a bit of a surprise. I tried to give it a little size reference with the matchbox, but it still doesn't quite translate. That joker was about 5 inches long. I was about to get all Bear Grylls on it and pick it up by the tail, but I decided to get all 10 year old schoolgirl on it, squeal and step on it 10 times.
Jonathan: I've heard great things about Kwazulu-Natal, and I think Sunette's been there once before. It's definitely on our list to visit in future trips. Speaking of Knysna, that's where we had our honeymoon back in 2000. Loved it!
Posted by: Jabulani Jonny | June 03, 2008 at 03:32 AM