Last day at ADDO Elephant National Park Main camp

Leaving Aardvark Backpackers seemed difficult for me as it was such a peaceful quiet place. It had also been raining through the night and a cold rainy day was not the best to be running about.

It was time to head back to the park and the owner agreed to give us a lift back in. Milou would have to head back to PE and her friends visiting the park would pick her up on the way back. It was a nice chat while getting a lift and we got to find out more about why he had chosen to migrate to South Africa.

The ride back to the park took a short while and after bidding goodbye to Milou I returned back to my hut at the park. Most of the others had gone somewhere for the weekend and I amused myself with watching a tortoise move around the toilet area.

Playing Peek-a-boo

These were quite common around the park and one of them was actually featured in the ADDO national park museum. Domskrag was well known for wedging himself under the wheel of a car and lifting it up. Tipping a competitor over was natural behavior for such animals and after several incidents, Domskrag had a dam named after him.

Watching the beautiful creature hide into his shell at the slightest perceived threat, reminded me of the safety and the cumbersomeness of stability. Having a constant home over his head meant that the tortoise was safe but lugging all that weight around meant movement was slow and difficult. Domskrag himself had died after falling into an aardvark hole and starved to death after being unable to climb out. There was nothing much to do at the park on a rainy day and I returned back to the hut to pack my bags.

I had earlier on requested to the volunteer coordinator, Salomia that I would like to spend my last week at Alexandria at the Woody Cape section and she had replied back to say that it was possible but I had to take my own transport there. It was really nice of the people at the park to arrange for me to stay over at such short notice and I was looking forward to the sand dunes again.

 It would be movement again tomorrow and a quick goodbye to my few friends at the park.