Panthera Leo - Addo Elephant National Park
Addo Elephant National Park (as the name states) is world renowned for opportunities to experience elephants up close and personal in their natural wild environment. We visited the Park twice a year for many years and were wowed by amazing elephant encounters but there was another more elusive animal on our list - the Lion!
Addo Elephant National Park
This malaria free Park is situated about 20 minutes outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The Park was proclaimed in 1931 to protect the remaining 11 Addo elephants that had all but been decimated by hunting over the 1700’s and 1800’s.
The Park has flourished and over 600 elephants now call Addo home!!
The 2 main dams in Addo are called Hapoor and Domkrag and are great spots to view game - especially during the heat of the day when animals come down to drink or to have a mud bath.
Hapoor Dam is named after the legendary dominant bull in the park for 24 years. The name comes from 'Hap' which means 'nick' in Afrikaans, while 'oor' means 'ear' and legend is the distinctive nick in his ear was caused by a hunter's bullet.
Domkrag Dam is named after a giant mountain tortoise which once roamed the Park - ‘jack’ is the english word for ‘Domkrag’ as this tortoise was famous for walking under cars and lifting them with incredible strength.
Lions in Addo
In 2003 the park management decided to introduce 6 lions (together with Spotted Hyenas) with their role being to restore the natural balance in the Park by controlling the numbers of herbivores. Today there is believed to be 17 lions in the main viewing section of the Park and 26 in the entire Park (including the private lodges/concessions).
First ever Trip
My wife and I started visiting the Park in 2014 and tried to visit twice a year. I spent weeks leading up to our first visit researching everything about the Park so when we entered the game viewing section for the very first time my excitement levels were through the roof. The weather conditions were horrific with torrential rain battering our car, but this did not damper our spirits and less than 100m from the gate we were treated to our first elephant encounter - a mother and baby elephant crossing the road just metres from the bonnet of our car - this was AMAZING and felt like a lifetime of Christmas’ combined together!
As part of my research leading up to our trip I had joined an Addo Facebook Group and people posting images of the lions had made up my mind - I NEEDED to see these lions in the wild!
Not once did I think of the practicalities of there being just over a handful of lions in the 3rd largest Park in South Africa (after Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park)…
To say I was disappointed in not spotting any lions was an understatement as we excited the Park for the last time… We really enjoyed it and booked our next trip as soon as we got home which meant that for 6 months I had to to be satisfied with experiencing the Park via the FB group.
2nd Trip and 1st lion encounter
Time eventually passed and with bags and camera packed we started the 9 hour journey to Addo. It was the 2nd last day at around noon on a hot sunny day that I turned to my wife and disappointingly said that it looked like another trip without a lion sighting.
As we crested a hill my eye spotted an outline at one of the small waterholes - I jokingly said to my wife that it looked like a lion… we both laughed and said “ja right, what are the chances”. It was not until we were a little closer that I shouted “LION” at the top of my voice … it was indeed a lioness that was drinking from the waterhole.
With shaky hands I grabbed my camera and parked our car and waited to see which direction she would walk off in… to our excitement she chose a path that would take her right past our car !!!
Our first Addo lion !!!
After getting home I posted this image and got to learn some amazing facts about her. The story is that she “adopted” 3 lion cubs after another lioness had died from an apparent snake bite. She cared for them as her own until she had to give them up as she too was pregnant and had to care for her own litter…. The 3 original cubs managed to survive on their own - guess it was not their time - nature is amazing!
2nd Encounter
Despite seeing our fist lion on our previous trip it was still the male lion that eluded us - but all this changed when on a cloudy, wet morning we turned a corner and spotted a beautiful male lion lying at the top of a hill looking out over the plains!
We were shocked at the size of him!!!
Best Encounter to-date
We woke up on the last day of our trip in Feb 2016 hopeful to spot our first lions of the trip as we had spent the evening listening to lions roaring close to the Main Camp. Traditionally we always try to be the first car through the gates as the big cats often lie on the roads in the early morning absorbing any heat as well as to avoid any dew on the long grass next to the road as they do not like their coats wet.
I had to decide left or right as the roads forks so I went left … about 5 metres into the loop I had this gut wrenching feeling that we had taken the wrong turn so I waited for the cars that were following us to pass us before turning around. My wife had always insisted that I had a sixth sense about knowing where to spot animals - I just hoped I was not going to disappoint her..
We got back to the T junction and turned left and as we took a bend in the road (about 50 metres further on) we were treated to not 1, not 2 but 3 lions in the middle of the road - we had found them!!! There were 2 huge males and 1 lioness and as most cars had turned left (our original way) we were the first car at the sighting!
One of the males in the middle of the road (he was looking at the lioness that was right next to our car!
The correct behaviour at a sighting in the bush is to share the experience so after we snapped a few photos we stopped on the side of the road to allow the cars behind us to get to the front. When the last car had driven past I said to my wife that I thought they might head off into the bush because of the traffic. I again listened to my instincts and took the next turn off. I parked our car with not a single animal in sight and waited …. for was seemed like ages there was nothing until out the corner of my eye movement in the golden morning light caught my attention - it was one of the huge male lions exiting the dense bush and we had him all to ourselves!!!!
What a privilege to share such an amazing moment with the King of the Bush!
Till next time…