After a final early morning game drive we bid farewell to the elephants, take a quick stop at Port Elizabeth’s airport and arrive in the afternoon at Tsitsikamma. The name means ‘place of abundant water’ and it does not disappoint, with its indigenous forests and dramatic coastline. This area is home to the famous multi-day Otter Trail hike and the first few hours of this hike is included in your Activity Package.
Optional Activities: Bungee jumping (highest in the world), treetop canopy tours, blackwater tubing (min 4 clients) Meals:
Breakfast (only on day 15), Lunch, Dinner
16th December 2013
Lisa and I got up and packed up our tent, helped the other campers pack up their tents then headed to our last family breakfast. It was a slightly sad affair with everyone leaving but it's a new day and every day is different.
We hit the road at 7am to do the last game drive in Addo, unfortunately it wasn't nearly as eventful as yesterday, we drove around but all the elephants seemed to be hiding. Who would have thought that 450 to 500 elephants could hide so easily. We saw some people wandering around outside their vehicle. I thought they were just being idiots breaking the game park rules by getting out of their vehicles, turns out there was a sign saying you could!!! the only stipulation was you had to watch out for Lions...
As we drove around we saw a couple of wardens wandering around, they stopped us and then searched Otis for contraband. They didn't find any, but it's good to know they are trying to stop poaching.
After the game drive we headed to Port Elizabeth Airport to drop the departing family members off. It was a really sad goodbye, after spending two great weeks together it's amazing how close you can get to people you would not have normally met. For my part I am really glad I got to met and travel with everyone, there were no tears from me but I did get some dust in my eyes.
From there we had a little bit of a sad drive, that was until someone suggested that we play some music, then we all livened up a little. We got to our accommodation the campers were staying at the Tube n Axe whilst the accommodated trekkers stayed in a really nice place in Tsitsikamma.
It was a full moon so I couldn't resist taking photos of it, the photo's aren't my best work but I've now taken photo's of a full moon from home and from South Africa.
17th December 2013
We headed into the Tsitsikamma National Park, some of us went for a hike on part of the Otter Trail. (Owen, Esther, Michael, Jens, Sonja, Matthew, Bill, Lisa & me) On the walk we spotted a whale and a calf frolicing about 150 meters of shore, I got a few photo's but I really needed the big lens. That makes 6 of the big seven, next on the list, a great white shark. Next we passed a really large cave on the walk, but when we started to look inside we quickly realised that it seems to be getting used as a toilet. It took about an hour and a half to get to our final destination, the waterfall. (there seems to be a hiking to waterfalls theme) I climbed part way up to get the "photo", it was worth the climb but it was only when I got back I saw a better spot for a photo but alas it was to late.
The other guys also went for a hike and then a swim at what would loosely be described as a beach, it was about 10 meters long and apparently freezing cold.
In the afternoon we headed for the Canopy Zipline tour, the night before we had some work to do to convince the ladies to join us. The crew for this was Esther, Thomas, Michael, Lina, Eva, Lisa and me. As some of you know when ever I'm doing anything that involves height I scream like a girl... this was no exception. The zipline itself was 10 runs of varying lengths and speeds. The tour operator was pretty funny, he told Eva that she wasn't going to make it because she was left handed and every opportunity he would pretend that he had not secured her properly and then grab at her as she left the platform. Michael was hysterical to watch, he would do things like running starts or jump off the platform, we could feel the platform shake everytime he did something the guide just shook his head. The thing I really don't like about ziplines is the harness, I can guarantee every guy gets to feel the pain and end up with a high pitched voice, mine occurred on about the third run.
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