22 |^ Caravan & Outdoor Life Magazine July 2019
[ TRAVEL]ADDOELEPHANTPARK,EASTERNCAPE
WHERE GIANTS
WALK THE EARTH
What do Stone Age humans
dating back 125 000 years, the
Khoikhoi people, the Xhosa
people, the Boers, British forts,
Percy Fitzpatrick (the author
of Jock of the Bushveld), Denys
Reitz of Boer War fame and the
inventor of the jet engine have
in common?
Add to the list wingless dung
beetles, a massive elephant
called Hapoor and a giant
tortoise called Domkrag.
If you answered AddoElephant Park, you would be
absolutely correct.
I was lucky enough to visit
this beautiful part of the Eastern
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in many years.
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letter in the alphabet, and in
my humble opinion this
location should rise to the top
of anyone’s bucket list. The
area is fascinating.
Just as a start, let’s take a
look at two of the items onmy opening list: Hapoor, the
massive bull elephant, was
named after the large nick on his
ear, thought to have come from a
hunter’s rifle. No wonder he had
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And what about the giant
tortoise? He was so gigantic he
was known to crawl under cars
and lift them up! Which was why
he was christened Domkrag, or
‘hydraulic Jack’.
Oh yes, Addo is not just any
“elephant park”...