Memorable moments: The three-syllable letdown

My friend Chrisel had just finished her wildlife guiding course in the Eastern Cape and was eager to put her new skills to the test. She knew my weakness: nothing gets my blood pumping like the big cats, especially the elusive, secretive leopard. A sighting is the holy grail of any safari.

We were scanning the bush in Addo Elephant National Park when Chrisel suddenly jolted in her seat.

"Leopard!" she barked.

A surge of pure, electric excitement crashed through me. My camera was ready, my heart was hammering against my ribs, and I was already scanning the golden shadows for a flick of a spotted tail. Then, after a perfectly timed, heart-stopping pause, she finished the sentence.

"...tortoise!"

My adrenaline didn't just drop; it evaporated. There it was: a leopard tortoise, ambling across the road with all the urgency of a Sunday afternoon nap. It was a perfectly handsome reptile, with a beautifully patterned shell that lived up to its name, but it lacked a certain... predatory menace.

I spent the next ten minutes staring at the shell, waiting for it to roar. It didn't, but I’m pretty sure I heard the tortoise laughing at me.

Exploring the Addo Elephant Park

Addo Elephant National Park is the second largest wildlife reserve in South Africa after The Kruger National Park and is home to over 600 elephants. Mum and Mike have been there several times and have raved about it, so it was exciting to get to visit it.  It certainly didn't disappoint.

Priceless moments

• Being inspired by lots of fascinating facts from Chrisèl who did a wildlife guiding course in The Eastern Cape just a few months before.
• A wonderful sighting of a herd of elephant arriving and frolicking in a water hole, including the cutest youngsters.
• An extremely close encounter with a female elephant and her calf as they ambled right past our car while parked at a dam.
• Getting extremely excited when Chrisèl suddenly said "Leopard ... !"  Then a second later, she broke the spell by saying  "... tortoise."  It wasn't a leopard at all.  Just a leopard tortoise!  I then discovered from Chrisèl that there is such a thing as the Little Five: the elephant shrew,  buffalo weaver, leopard tortoise, ant lion and rhino beetle. What a great concept. You don't just have to be excited about big animals.
• Watching two male tsessebes have a bit of a fight.
• Sighting of the endangered Addo flightless dung beetle along the road.
• Lots of sightings of Eland in large groups.  And cute warthogs eating on their knees.
• Discovering that the park shop sold granadilla lollies.  Ice-cream sticks don't come better!
• Staying at The Orange Elephant Backpackers and buying loads of fresh ingredients from a local shop and making an enormous salad to have with our babotie. 

Less happy moments

• Walking out barefoot onto the lawn at the backpackers at dusk to do my meditation, then discovering on the way back that is was land-mined with multiple thorns and getting stabbed in both feet several times.  So weird that it didn't get me once on my way onto the lawn!
• Discovering the local restaurant had Diemersfontein Chocolate Pinotage on its menu which we really wanted to try after hearing about it from Antony. Then being told they didn't stock it. Ah, the disappointment!! 
• A ravenous but very stealthy mosquito accosting us the one night.

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Weaver

Black-headed Heron

Fiscal Shrike

Egyptian Geese

Fighting Tsessebe

Elephants, the reason the park is most famous...

... with beautiful babies too.

I love the symmetry of this one ...

... and this one too.

Zebra, always so beautiful.

Mum's favourite, the warthog.  So ugly, they're beautiful.

We loved the way they went onto their knees like this.

Me with my own personal wildlife guide!