We took six days and traveled up to Addo from Cape Town. It was actually a really nice mini-trip. We took the Garden Route inland to Addo passing through a lot of the South African Peninsula on the way. The closest way that I can think of describing the drive is that its like driving through middle America. There were vast stretches of road where for miles there was no sign of human occupation, except for fences. We didn't even run into other cars. But the scenery was beautiful. The two lane road wound through mountainous farm/grazing land. So the landscape was almost untouched, except for the fences. In this day in age, and in all the places where I've lived, you almost never see scenery untouched by houses, stores, or some sign of humans. It was almost creepy in its emptiness.
We stayed the first night in a place that's pronounced like Oatshorn I forget how it's spelled. It was a cute little town, it would have been nice to have been able to spend more time there, there were supposed to be some very interesting things to see, but the only thing we had time for was the Safari Ostrich Ranch. The ranch is actually pretty interesting we almost had our own private tour. We saw baby ostriches and full grown ostriches and ostrich eggs (I even stood on one!) and even an ostrich race! For dinner that night I had Ostrich steak which is delicious! When I first heard about Ostrich farming in the US I thought it was another one of those "yeah, it tastes like beef" kinda like how snake is supposed to taste like chicken. Well, I've had both, and yes, Ostrich tastes like beef, but no snake does not taste like chicken.
After the Ostrich farm we headed on out to Addo which is on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. I have to say that the township in Port Elizabeth is no joke. It's better than the one in Cape Town, at least all the PE township "houses" seemed to have roofs, but it was still huge and decrepit. It's simply awful. (maybe I will have time to write a post on the lack of black people in Africa)
In the Elephant park we stayed in these cute cabins right in the park, not next to the wild animals, but very close. In the morning we got up and drove into the preserve. It is actually pretty interesting to see all the animals wandering about doing whatever it is that animals do all day. I thought it would be interesting to describe all the animals, but this is one instance in which our pictures make a much better statement. In a couple of days go to www.shutterfly.mashawna.com and look for the album Africa.
