28 Nov Monday Addo Park to Storms River

We left Addo Nat park and traveled 350 Km to Storms River-Tsitsikamma National Park. This is one gorgerous camp site, right on the Indian Ocean within the National Park area. Every camp site has an ocean view.
Now back to the trip. Upon leaving Addo we decided to to take the long route thru the entire park which covered about 30 KM of park road which is mostly gravel, but I must say, very good gravel, actually hard pan. The speed limit in all animal parks is only 40 KMH but you have to go much slower if you intend to spot any animals so this trip probably took us 1 1/2 to 2 hours and you will find out why as this story unfolds. We had hoped to see a few Elephants since there is suppose to be 350 Elephants whom call this park as their home. There are also 9 Lions who are somewhere in the park.
During the first 10 Km we seen the usual "wild " animals such as Zebras, Warthogs, Kudus and even 3 foxes so we pretty well figured that would be it for the day. Then, as we hit the brow of a hill there were 3 or 4 cars stopped which usually means a sighting of something, even a bird or two. Then we seen the reason for the traffic tie-up, which was one huge Elephantstanding across the road , having breakfast from the roadside trees and she was in no hurry to move. Bear in mind, the roads are 16 to 18 ft wide with no shoulders and shrubs and trees right up to the roadway. So there was no way that anyone could get by. As per normal we all started snapping pics and hoped that she would move off the road. Not likely; she stood there eating for about 20 mins. and none of us had the nerve to ask her to move. Finally she move at a slight angle and one small car snug by. Then the Elephant turned and started to walk up the road, but directly in the middle so we could not get past. By this time a few more cars joined the parade and there we were all in single file, inching our way up the road behind the Elephant for about another 15 mins. Finally, she found a path off the road and took it allowing us to motor on our way.

After another 20 mins or so and just as we came over another hill we seen 7 or 8 vehicles blocking the road both ways. We could not see the problem so we got as close as possible and Carroll ask a girl, who was hanging out the window of her car snapping pics, what the holdup was. She said there are 2 male Lions right on the road Suninng themselves with no intention of moving. Now, this got our interest as Lion sightings are rare so we inched closer and started snapping a few pics. Well, maybe we snapped more than a few pics but certainly not more than a hundred. The car in front of us moved fwd which allowed us full view of the Lions. Then a few more cars joined the charades so being our MH blocks out the small cars, I moved ahead to allow others the priviledge of getting some pics. Finally the car in front of me moved on so I coasted fwd so as not to frighten the Lions. Since I have a Diesel I did not want to start it. Once I got directly in front of the Lions I wanted that last perfect shot, out the window of course. Just as i snapped the last pics the one Lion raised it's head as if to stare at me. Well, I don't want to say i was too close but I can tell you that the Lion had bad Breath.

Well, enough of this Elephant and Lion hunting, we had another 350 KM of road to cover so off we go to our next destination.

Our plan was to stop at Oster Bay for the night,; a place we selected from our trusty camping book. In the early afternoon about 30 or 40 KM from our destination we were going thru a small city/town and decided we need groceries so we stopped and did some shopping. Then we decided we were hungry and spotted a Fish and Chip takeout. Since we were close to the ocean we thought the fish would be good and it was. On our way back to the MH we spotted a pie shop so we dropped in and bought 2 pies for supper.
Now we are heading for Oster Bay and the sign says turn right but our GPS says to turn left. so we trusted our GPS for about 4 KM then we did not like the road so we stopped and called the resort. The directions sound kind of convoluted but the 25 KM of gravel road was making me nervous but he assured us it was a good road. After a few KM I realized the resort owner and I had a different definiton of Good so we did an about turn and picked out another camp ground , down the road about 50 KM which was Tsitsikamma National park and as it turns out it was the perfect choice. The park is located 4 KM from the quaint tourist town of Storms River.

We arr at the park and the receptionist ask if we wanted a view lot. Of course Carroll said yes so it cost an extra R50. The clerk gave us 5 choice and said pick one and let me know right away. We drove down to these "breath taking" sites right on the ocean, picked out a site and then drove back to the office and paid for a 2 nd night. We find it hard to believe you can get a 5 star camping spot for 25.00 cdn per night. These RV parks makes ours in Canada look like a dump.
Anyway it is now " Miller Time " for me and our neighbours have already say hello so I'm sure they will be talking to us shortly. MH are rare in ZA so naturally we do command attention.