We are in Port Elizabeth but the view from our cabin is a giant car park and to be honest, there is not much to see from this industrial port.
Our alarm went off at 6.15am as we have a shore excursion, which leaves at 7.30, to the Addo Elephant Park with a tour around it in a open safari truck. We grabbed a bite to eat and met in the theatre and waited for our number to be called. There are lots of tours doing this park throughout the day though some travel around the main roads in a coach whilst others, like ours, swap their coach for safari trucks.
Our tour was the only one bus doing this excursion at this time, so we nearly left on time. It took about 70 minutes to get there. Along the way our guide asked us to fill out indemnity forms and told us a few facts about the park. Originally there was only 10,000 hectares of parkland and 11 elephants because South Africa used to hunt their elephants for their ivory. Then the rules changed and they acquired more land through the local farmers allowing the use of their land for a small fee and now there are 137,000 hectares and over 600 elephants, plus zebras, warthogs, ostriches, buffalo, antelopes (we saw all of these animals today during our 2.5hr game drive) and lots of other animals we did not see including lions.
This place is huge so it was not easy to find the animals as it is so much easier to shelter. Saying that, we almost ran over an elephant. We were going along the beaten track at about 15mph and turned a bend to find an old elephant in the track claiming squatters rights.
Realising it would not move much, we had to slowly navigate around it.
Our best memories of this day were seeing these majestic beasts coming from all angles to the watering hole. We did not get to touch or feed them like before but we saw them in their natural habitat doing what elephants do and it was wonderful.
Before we left we got a chance to go to the shop after the tour. Pam got a keyring, T-shirt and fudge and Mark got a bottle stopper, ankle socks and crisps.
We arrived back onboard at 1:30 and had lunch in the kings court buffet. Mark had a burger and chips and Pam had beef cannelloni and a chicken pizza slice with salad. We were quite hungry though we had attacked the crisps earlier.
The ship doesn’t depart till 8:30pm today so we decided to take the shuttle bus into Port Elizabeth. Well, they said shuttle bus but it was obviously a school bus repurposed for the day and very few cruise passengers could fit in a single seat. Anyway, it was only a 20min ride as it took us to the Boardwalk mall where we got out and walked through the mall to the beach. Mark continued his global beach report and can state that the water was freezing and had quite a lot of plastic in it and no fishes in sight. It seemed to be very popular with the locals though.
Before heading back on the shuttle we browsed the many shops in the mall where Mark bought an elephant T-shirt. South Africa seems to have a lot of fast food restaurants, and Port Elizabeth is no different, and we saw more of these - brings back memories of our UK childhood.
We rang family before we boarded again as it was good to catch up with a reliable internet signal. We also caught up with these blogs and other important banking and regular correspondence - life still goes on back home when you are 4 months away and things still need doing and paying. Luckily, most of these are automated and Katherine, our daughter, takes care of the rest but we haven’t got away from it 100%.
We went to the theatre to see the 8pm show of Foggie Flax. It was the 4th different set we have seen now though again some duplicates from the Arcadia set. He was still amazing doing impressions of people, objects and transport plus singing as Bryan Adams, Sting and Colm Wilkinson (the original lead in les miserables).
As we had been running late we had a very late dinner in the Britannia restaurant at 9pm. Pam had pumpkin soup followed by leg of lamb with gnocchi and veg and ended with apple Charlotte and custard. Mark had the same but switched the soup for a starter of haddock risotto with a poached egg.
We met up with our friends Andrew and Diane again for the late night quiz and tales of excursion. The went on a different safari and got to see a baby elephant or two (amongst lots of other animals) so they were over the moon and we were a little envious. It seems their day was very much like our Durban one. Oh the quiz, we got 19 out of 20 and lost because we didn’t know which musical had the song “you’re never fully dressed without a smile”. Very annoying as we know our musicals. It was from Annie. Nevermind, we win the quiz, tomorrow, tomorrow, we’ll win it, tomorrow, it’s only a day away.
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