Stellenbosch to Port Alfred and on to Addo, South Africa 20 - 21 Nov 07

Addo Elephant National Park

Pretty flight through the Franschhoek valley east of Stellenbosch to Port Alfred (VFR/IFR 2:59). The forecast for Port Elizabeth was not too good, so we filed IFR to Port Elizabeth and cancelled IFR when below the overcast. Surprisingly, we had a 25 knot westerly tailwind up high at FL110 until Port Elizabeth, which changed to a 25 knot headwind down low at 2000 feet. Due to the wind, it was a bumpy ride for the last half hour or so and Angela was happy to get on the ground, even though the grass runway was also bumpy. We taxied over to the South African Mooney dealer’s hangar over more bumpy ground. We got a warm welcome from Mooney dealer Patrick Hanly and left the DME with him to be fixed. (It hadn’t worked since Luanda when Flemming forgot to turn off the master switch and the battery ran low.)
We picked up our hired car and drove to Addo where we stayed at Valley View B&B near the Addo Elephant Park. Our friendly host told us that the previous day some tourists had been attacked in the park by a rhino and it had made headlines in the local newspaper. This raised my hopes that we might finally get to see one of those animals, but no such luck. Apart from plenty of warthogs, monkeys, ostriches and antelopes such as the red hartebeest and kudus, we only saw one of the Big Five: elephants, naturally.
Addo Elephant Park wasn’t the most scenic of parks and animals weren’t too easy to spot due to thick vegetation. Still, it made a convenient and pleasant stop-over on our way to Graaff-Reinet.