Addo Elephant National Park

Addo elephant Park is really worth a visit

We spent two nights in Addo, sleeping at the Nyathi rest camp. This accommodation is beautifully positioned in that it is really very remote (no wifi or cellphone signal - sometimes a blessing....). There is a limited amount of game to see at the camp but the scenery and peace make up for this. The accommodation is very nicely appointed and the kitchen has pretty much everything one could want (only two of every piece of crockery and cutlery - which is a bit limiting). Parks people at the camp were friendly and attentive.
We really enjoyed the park, the lists of animals that one can see does not compare with Kruger BUT this does not mean that the game viewing was not great. We saw many, many elephant. So anyone wanting a close encounter of the elephant kind - this is the place to go.
I have never seen quite so many Kudu, there are quite literally herds of Kudu - usually one encounters a solitary Kudu half obscured by a bush - not in Addo, they are as plentiful as Impala are in Kruger - well not quite but one started to think that way. The bush pigs are very plentiful. We also saw lots of zebra.
The waterholes are the places to go to, easy viewing but one has to pick your time - as is the case at any waterhole - the animals are there and then they are gone.
We are not big "birders" but we saw some nice birds and the cherry was the secretary bird - wonderful.
The roads have been pretty well maintained and the restaurant and shops (some very nice up market curios - similar to what we have seen in the airport at ORT) are in pretty good shape. Overall we were impressed.
Addo clearly has some problems with regards to over grazing in some area and while one could be critical I would rather see it as a work in progress - especially when one considers the state of some other parks in South Africa/Africa.