Following our one day venture in Outdshoorn where we visited the Cango Wildlife Ranch and pet adult cheetahs and saw the ostriches at the Cango Ostrich Farm, we left for Port Elizabeth. After arriving just before sunset, we spent the night enjoying the company of our hosts of our AirBnb and prepared for our early morning horseback safari in Addo Elephant National Park.
Horseback Safari in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa
Having asked a few people prior to leaving for South Africa and researching more online, we came to the conclusion that the best safari opportunity we had during our 13 day road trip from Cape Town to Durban was to come at the Addo Elephant National Park. Knowing that we could only spend one day in the area of the park, we wanted to take full advantage of our day.
We scheduled a horseback safari in Addo Elephant National Park to start the day at 8:30 a.m. and planned to do our own self drive through the park in our own rental car despite a few warnings we found online of animals damaging cars.
The cost of the horseback ride was $40 USD each. We felt we wanted to experience the safari and see theses animals in the wild while on an animal ourselves. Finding out that the ride in the morning was more so for beginner riders, as opposed to the afternoon ride, as well as wanting not to cook in the scorching afternoon sun, the choice of the morning ride was the best for us.
Natalie had never been on a horse, while I had only been on a horse once before. The ride lasted approximately one and a half hours, with at least half an hour of meeting our guide and prepping the horses. It is worthwhile to mention that though they say two hours on the website, that time does include the guide setting up the horses with saddles and outfitting yourself with appropriate gear and dropping off the horses at the end.
The tour was a gorgeous slow trot through relatively flat terrain and seeing a few different animals in their natural habitat. It seemed that Natalie’s horse was interested more so in the grass and was told on multiple occasions to hold her horse’s head up to keep it from eating. This proved difficult time and time again.
The guide held a rifle at all times and was always on the lookout for wildlife. We asked him if he had ever had to use the gun before, and he said on a few occasions when they came across lions. In order to keep the lions away, he will fire warning shots in the air and this will keep them from coming any closer. We felt very secure knowing that he had never had a run in with a lion up close and personal.
Unfortunately, we did not get to see any lions while on horseback. However, we did get to see a herd of zebras and antelope. We also got to see some ostriches running full speed. The most interesting experience came when we basically strolled around a heard of zebras and sat about twenty feet away from them while they relaxed in the morning sun.
Our guide was always willing to answer any question we had, and he mostly did not talk unless asked a question. We do wish he would have been more interactive with us, as we tried time and time again to get him to join our conversation, but it seemed that he did not want to take away from our joint experience.
Conclusion
Ultimately, our horseback ride through a portion of the Addo Elephant National Park was a great warm up to our self-drive through the park on our own. It gave us a glimpse of what we were to expect for the rest of the day while in the park and provided us with a wonderful horseback ride that we will never forget.
We regrouped at the main camp and enjoyed a burger meal at the restaurant. We also did a little souvenir shopping before setting off for the remainder of the day on our self-drive through the park.
If you do decide to visit the park, we did hear that though doing a tour through the park is nice as you do not need to drive around yourself, it is also a rushed experience. This is because the park guarantees a certain number of sightings of animals. Therefore, if your group arrives at an amazing place with a herd of zebras, they may not stay there as long as you would like. This is why we decided to drive the park by ourselves, as you will read about in our next post, as we wanted to move at our own pace. This proved to be well worth it.
If you ever visited the Addo Elephant National Park, please leave us a comment below about how you liked or disliked your experience there. We would love to know what other people had done while at the park.
Following our horseback safari in Addo Elephant National Park, we prepared for our self drive safari through the same park. The horseback ride through a portion of the park was just a warm up for what we would see on our drive throughout the park.
After the two hour (really a little over an hour) enjoyable horseback ride through a portion of the park where we saw a group of zebras, antelope, and a couple of ostriches, we were super excited for what we would see on the self-drive. There was a map at the main camp that showed where certain animals were spotted last.
When we saw where the lions were spotted last, we became interested that we may see the group of lions in the area during our tour. After snapping a shot of the map, we made our way to the office to pay for our self-drive through the park. The cost is a conservation fee of just over $22 USD.
Famished after spending the morning in the scorching African sun, we ate a nice burger and french fries meal at the restaurant in the main camp and toured around the souvenir shop. We were prepared for the remainder of our day touring the grounds.
Before we even got into our vehicle, we had seen that there was a watering hole around the main camp and decided to give it a chance to see whether or not there were any animals gathered around it. We had just missed an elephant, as we saw in the distance it was leaving.
Self Drive Safari at Addo Elephant Park in South Africa
We chose to a self drive safari in South Africa at the Addo Elephant National Park. The night before when we spoke with our hosts. They had told us that there are some downfalls when going on a guided tour. For one, it is less of an intimate experience on a group tour. But the second, and most important point, is that the tour guarantees you see a certain number of animals. Therefore, your vehicle could pull up to an extremely interesting spot with a lot of one species of animal. However, since the tour guarantees you a certain number of animal sightings, you may not be there for long as your vehicle rushes to the next stop.
Much like most of our travels, we opted to do the tour at our own pace. We did see some warnings on the internet before committing to this decision that did make us weary. This included some animals damaging vehicles. Since this was a rental car, we were a little bit worried and cautious. Though, it proved to be nothing to be worried about.
We drove everywhere we could with our small Volkswagen. This is where having a GPS came in handy, as well as having the park map. We could see every road through the park and made sure we did not miss a road. We really wanted to spot those lions.
For the first thirty minutes to an hour we had only come across one elephant having a mud bath. Though at the time, we thought it was amazing, we did not know how much better it would get!
Shortly after, we came across a section where a few cars had pulled over and we spotted several zebras and a couple of elephants gathered in separate groups.
This is where being able to stop on your time and drive at your own pace comes into play. Though there was not a lot of animals at this juncture, it was more than enough to be able to pull over and just watch them for a period of time.
Continuing on in our journey, we came down a small hill where we spotted a large herd of elephants. I’m talking probably upwards of 50 spread out throughout a massive field. Some coming, some going. Some gathered by a watering hole. And some crossing the road just twenty feet from our car and a foot away from the back of another.
These animals are massive when you get up this close! It is truly incredible to see them up close like this! Being able to just sit there and watch their habits in a group together was spectacular.
Throughout the remainder of our time, a total of five hours in all, we got to see several more zebra (including one that had its but mangled by a predator), a bull, more antelope, boars, and dung beetles! Yes, beetles that roll dung in perfectly shaped ball, lay their eggs, and wait for them to hatch. Be careful not to run them over in your vehicle! There are signs with lots of warnings throughout the park.
Conclusion
We had completed the drive throughout the hole park. From the main entrance to the southern entrance. With one last checkpoint where a guard inspects your car and trunk to make sure you have not taken anything from the park, we were off to our AirBnB for the remainder of the night.
Our first safari day was jam packed with adventure! We could not have asked for any more, except to see some lions, cheetahs, and giraffe. That would have been awesome!
We do recommend that you do your own self-drive, as long as you understand the risks involved in doing so. You just cannot beat the freedom of being able to drive at your own pace and stop where you want. We are not discrediting doing a tour, as we understand how insightful guides can be, but it would be great if you could book your own intimate tour with a guide and yourself. We were lucky enough to have this on our horseback safari. That is what we will do on our next safari drive.
Have you been on a safari before? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comment section below!
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