Previously called Port Elizabeth, the city's name was changed in 2021 to the Xhosa and Southern Khoe name for the Baakens River that flows through the city. Along with the surrounding towns and townships, Ggeberha forms part of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Its urban coastline is dotted with picturesque, Blue Flag beaches which are popular hotspots for locals and visitors alike. In addition, the city serves as a gateway to the Eastern Cape's wildlife and great outdoors, including safari adventures to witness the "Big 5" game species.
This was our tour description: Observe the bountiful wildlife of Addo Elephant Park during a ride through this stunning national park. Meet your guide at the pier, then sit back and relax as you enjoy a leisurely drive through the scenic landscapes of the Sundays River Valley.
The park was built in 1931 to protect the 11 elephants remaining in the area from extinction by big-game hunters. Today, it is a sanctuary for more than 450 elephants, as well as other indigenous wildlife. Enjoy the views from your elevated position over the vast plains as you keep watch for the graceful giants of the African bush. Addo elephants are distinctly identifiable due to their reddish color skin and rounded ears; your knowledgeable tour guide will furnish you with fascinating facts about these highly intelligent creatures.
All this sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? It is amazing what you can accomplish with words, but reality is something different. Today was one of the biggest excursion disaster we have ever experienced on Viking. There is enough blame to go around for everyone. We were able to enter Port Elizabeth albeit late. The South African immigration people finally boarded in order to process us, but by the time they got set up, everyone in the whole ship was in line to get their passport stamped. Instead of calling each excursion in order of the earliest to the latest, they just started telling people to get up there and get yourselves processed. This caused a humongous back up.
The port would only allow four buses in for loading at one time; but people who needed to be on the early buses were still getting processed so they could not fill the bus. So here is everybody outside in the rain milling around waiting for a bus to get on, but since there wasn’t the right bus, and there weren’t the right people to get on the bus – – you get the idea.
Our tour was supposed to start at 8:45 and actually got started at 10:15. It was supposed to be five hours, but all told with the time we got up, got processed, did the tour and then got back it was more like all day. And no lunch. The only saving grace was that there were only 10 people on our bus by the time it left. I think a lot of people just got disgusted and left.
We go to this elephant game park expecting to see a bunch of elephants and some other animals. We saw part of an elephant, a zebra, a few miscellaneous other animals, including a dung beetle. We spent two hours driving around in big circles looking for animals. It is two hours plus all the transportation time that I can never get back. We stopped at the Park headquarters for a pitstop, and everybody on board made a beeline to the gift shop to buy some chips and drinks – – that was lunch.
Tomorrow is a sea day. We are expecting to arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday, April 10. We are also hoping that my package from DHL with my medication in it will be there for pick up.
Look closely: an elephant trunk 
Zebra 
African buffalo 
Warthog