Addo accommodation January discount

Take advantage of your discount and add a +CrissCrossAddo safari to your holiday. From Addo Park open vehicle safari's to river safari's to quad biking to fishing... welcome to the Adventure Province of South Africa!

Addo Accommodation December Discount!

Chrislin Staff Outing

Chrislin African Lodge staff goes to PE for an outing!

Chrislin African Lodge certainly could not function without the dedication and hard work of all of our staff members. 

In September we embarked on a memorable fun filled outing as a reward for continuous efforts and a celebration of friendships. And what an amazing day it was!

An hour after leaving Addo, we descended upon the Baywest Shopping Mall in Port Elizabeth. It didn't take us long to find an unbelievable selection of sumptuous cakes at Bayleaf Bistro which, with some coffee, piqued everyone's 'mall exploration' mode. Maria and co. went on a quest to have her ears pierced for the first time in her (about) 55 years. Martha bought some bed linen while Zuzu sat put in more or less one spot for fear of getting lost!

Bayleaf Bistro for cakes and coffee

We then headed off to the beachfront and had a marvellous meal at Angelo's. There was much debate as to what calamari is and Zuzu kept us all entertained in her attempts to eat with a knife and fork for the first time. (Next year we may threaten chopsticks!)

Ladies (and gent) lunching at Angelo's on the PE beachfront

Zuzu giggles

Margaret and Maria

After the nourishment for the body and soul, many a photo and selfie on the beach had to happen

Madi and Jean

With the photo shoot over, we hit tenpin bowling at the Boardwalk. We split into two teams and competition was tight. Everyone pulled out their A game. The suspense was enthralling!

Tenpin bowling hilarity!

Bowling hustler Jean

What a fabulous day... Thank you, ladies!

Sharon, Martha, Zuzu, Maria, Mentha and Juliette

Addo Rose Tea 2015

The stalwart women of the Sundays River Valley Women's Institute are at it again, the Addo Rose Tea!

After last year's success and fun, we're sure to be in for another treat. There seems to be nothing these fabulous women cannot do, and they do it with style, stamina and smiles. 

Come and join us at the Valentine Hall, Addo, on 17th Otober 2015 at 2pm.

Limited seats so do book in advance.

Talbot Elliott's Memories of Addo, Eastern Cape

This article was written for the May/June 1999 Trumpeting Elephant (local newsletter in Sundays River Valley). Talbot and Rosemary Elliott are presently (August 2015) in Valleihof Retirement Home, Kirkwood, Eastern Cape.

Talbot Elliott, another settler son of the Valley who has recently retired to Sunland, farmed at Hermiston, Addo, for many years, and took part in many Valley activities and sports with great enthusiasm. Talbot still plays bowls, does woodwork as a hobby, is a stalwart of St. Michaels, Summerville and is still enthusiastic about his life in this area. His memories of the early days at Addo make interesting and amusing reading.

Talbot Elliott’s Memories

Jack Elliott and Bill Dyke were South Africans and met during the First World War. Jack had a bad injury to his left elbow that left him partially disabled. He and Bill Dyke decided they would go into partnership and but a property in the recently advertised Sundays River Valley. Being born in South Africa they had a better idea of the soils and climate of the region and from the map in London, they selected a prime section of Commando Kraal. They found they had acquired land with 30 feet (about 8 metres) of alluvial soil. The price per morgen was five pounds!

            Bill Dyke farmed Bydand Farm                         Dorothy Dyke, Bill's Wife.

Bill playing the bagpipes on Bydand Farm, the name on the crest of his regiment, the Gordon Highlanders.

Bill & Dorothy Dyke, October 1920 

Ruth, Bill & Dorothy Dyke's daughter, wedding to Kenneth McDowell Woolley. 

While Jack was convalescing he met Alice Banks, who was then working as a land girl. He returned to South Africa and he and Bill began developing the land they had bought. Subsequently he sent Alice a photo of a pondocky and asked if she could live in it. She said yes, and so she came out to marry Jack.

They had 2 children, Mary and Talbot. When Talbot was 12 his father died. He was still attending St. Vincent’s school for the Deaf in Johannesburg. His mother employed Mr. von de Marwitz as a foreman for seven pounds a month wages! Talbot was about 17 when he came to take over the running of the farm in 1940.

By this time the Elliott’s and Dyke’s had divided the land they had started in partnership and acquired more property. Night water leading was extremely tiring. Four days and nights without let up, using paraffin lamps or later carbide lamps at nighttime. The Irrigation Board would try to ensure water leading was done during the full moon. The Farmer would get up twice in the night to take sandwiches and coffee to the men working through the night.

Things were incredibly difficult in those early days. There was still no dam, and crops were grown on the run-off from floodwaters! So settlers were always looking for ways to make a little extra money. In 1920, Barclay’s Bank asked for tenders to build the bank manager’s house. Bill Dyke and Jack Elliott won it! Alice Elliott, remembering those days said, “They didn’t know much about building, so they would work during the day and in the evening they would pour over their books on do-it-yourself building to see how the floor joists were set or the roof beams” (the house has been extensively altered since, but the original part still seems to be holding up O.K.)

Other ways to earn money were bee keeping and chickens. On one ghastly occasion the bees stung the Elliott’s chickens, killing them all. Sometimes success could be a problem too. One year the Dyke’s had a bumper crop of groundnuts (peanuts) and since there was nothing else to eat, they ate them until the sight of a peanut made them feel ill!

Oranges were picked into lug boxes (which had a multitude of other uses, like bed-side tables and shelving). Farmers paid 1d per lug for hiring them. 25 full lugs could be loaded on a wagon pulled by mules or horses. One day Talbot was loading 50 empty lugs onto the wagon, when the wind blew some of  the lugs onto the mules, which took off without Talbot at a flat gallop and arrived home unhurt and driverless!

Then just when things seemed to be going all right, in February came the plague of locusts. Everyone was mobilised and farmers, their staff and children were lined up with tins and pans banging them furiously to encourage the locusts to take off and hopefully move onto someone else’s farm. They spent the whole day walking backwards and forwards across the farm.

In the early days Jack and Alice drove to Port Elizabeth by horse and trap past the Old Addo Drift House. There were 12 gates on the road, and Alice counted at one time 24 tortoises on the road to Port Elizabeth. A trip to town was special; they would spend the night and luxuriate in a hot bath.

There were no fresh vegetables except what people grew. The Women’s Institute initiated the Women’s Market every Friday when people would take their surplus vegetables and buy someone else’s. Before long some people were making a small regular income from the weekly market. At first a bell would indicate that buying could commence, but the unseemly grabbing by the lady sellers, was felt to be undignified, especially when a bunch of carrots disintegrated with 2 irate ladies tugging it from different directions. Thereafter benches were put in front of the table and committee members would stand behind, ready to serve when the bell rang. If you were friends with the committee member near you, you could bespeak some of the things you wanted and get first chance. Otherwise you would be drowned out by the cacophony of shouts from the assembled ladies. Opinions differed if this was more or less dignified than straight grabbing.

The Pickels' now own Hermiston Farm and established Chrislin African Lodge B&B. Citrus is still on the farm and, like their predecessors, are entrepreneurial on the land!

  

Crisscross Adventures - quad biking starts on Hermiston Farm. So do the Addo Park safari's, river safari and more!

Eish in the Addo

Eish in the Addo

Wildlife guide Conrad Cramer was at the Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa when he came across a baby elephant lifting

his head and flaring his ears at a full-grown African Buffalo.

 

 

 

Luckily, the calf walked away with nothing more than damaged pride. And according to Cramer, even the elephant's relatives agreed that the buffalo was in the right.
"The other elephants were in no way disturbed by the chain of events," Cramer said, adding that they viewed the altercation as a "life lesson that the youngster had to learn."

Read the Mail Online for more photos and information. 

Follow Conrad Cramer on Twitter (@skindiboy), Facebook and Instagram (africanmandreaming) for more beautiful animal pictures.

Snakes, birds & local facts

Darren Kleinhans, from Addo, Eastern Cape, came to talk to guests at Chrislin African Lodge.

It's fascinating how one can live in an area for so long and still be so unaware of what is around us. And what people do.

What makes a bird of prey different to other birds? Why is it a bird of prey? Because it uses its beak to kill animals? No, because it uses it claws.

Darren works with Eskom (South Africa's national electricity supplier) to try save birds who die as a result of the power lines and educate on snakes and birds of prey.Did you know that vultures are closer to extinction than rhino? That there is an African superstition that owls are bad luck and they are therefore killed? Power lines in the northern Eastern Cape, King Williams town and Queenstown area are littered with owls and, worst of all, Cape Vultures. There are less than 5000 cape vultures left in the wild.

Darren enlightened us on the wind turbines on nearby Grass Ridge. Apparently these wind turbines do not affect birds of prey at all, however bats are taking strain. The birds see these wind turbines, and thus avoid collision but the bats are affected by the sonar waves they give off. So, basically, mid-flight, and not even near to smacking into these turbines, the lungs of these little bats basically pop, and they die mid-flight. He also elaborated on snakes in our area. There are over 200 species of snakes in South Africa but only 15 are venomous, only 6 deadly. You have more chances of dying from a car accident or bees than a snake bite! Although, the Cape Cobra is a very dangerous snake and is very common in Addo...

Darren then brought out a puffy on site. Puffadder snakes have Cytotoxic venom….aka flesh eating. Venom can be ingested, it can’t take any effect unless it comes into contact with blood. Puffadders strike incredibly fast…they can strike a balloon twice before it has popped.

Rinkhals snake

Terri and her nephews, Tristan & Ross, listening to Darren talk about owls

Ross bravely holding a snake

Darren with his owl, Tyrant

Darren with a spotted eagle owl

Tristan handling a corn snake

Chrislin's new zhuzh logo

Love this design from Zhuzh Designs for Chrislin African Lodge. Can you see the combination of huts and moon with the incorporation of Addo elephant?

Travel makes one modest...

Supine

supine

ˈs(j)uːpʌɪn/

adjective

1. 1.

   (of a person) lying face upwards.

My favourite word at the moment. Love it. Say it... "Su-pine" So descriptive.

Whilst on a stroll around the Chrislin estate this afternoon, I 'supined' under a citrus tree. Winter in the Eastern Cape, especially the Sundays River Valley, is beautiful (when it doesn't rain). The mornings and evenings are chilly, sometimes very chilly, but by mid-morning the sun is truly quite glorious. These conditions are perfect for citrus, hence our area being one of the largest citrus export areas in South Africa. 

Citrus orchards and trees are hanging with orange and yellow gold, fleets of trucks are occupying the roads to the farms, co-operatives and harbours, transport vehicles the same, a hive of activity is found in every nook and cranny of the Sundays River Valley with farmers spying every weather and market condition, employment monies coming in and a trade influx.

Our harvest season is in full swing. And so, once in a while, one needs to stop and supine. Take it all in, smell the citrus as such. I loved my magical moment, under a citrus tree, sun warm on my skin.

Supine.

Addo, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Found these wonderful websites on a Spanish site. Great info, showing off South Africa and all there is on offer. It really is an exciting country!

The Eastern Cape is malaria free, affordable and a variety of fauna and flora makes each day unique. Friendly, accommodating and rugged - come experience for yourself!

http://www.turistaloserastu.es/

http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-eastern-cape

http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-eastern-cape

A blurb from Thembisa Cakuma, housekeeper at Chrislin African Lodge, Addo.

Inspired partly by Humans of New York, our diverse population in the Greater Addo area and South Africa’s present climate, I decided to informally interview the Chrislin staff on their own stories. Everyone has a unique story and it occasionally takes only a little scratching on the surface to realise everyone’s individual, fascinating journey. 

Thembisa Cakuma, 28

Thembisa was born on a local Addo farm where her parents were working. Elim Primary School (originally started by Mrs Grace de Kock and recently donated by her son, Dr Peter Bunton, to start a private school, Hermitage House) was where her education begun. “We were taken to Happy Valley every Christmas,” recalls Thembisa, “I saw so many new things!” She remembers a trip to the Port Elizabeth Museum where she was scared of all these ‘things’ she hadn’t seen before.

She finished school at Samkelwe Senior Secondary School in Nomathansanqua. During this time her father died in a car accident so her mother became the main bread winner. Thembisa’s mother made sure she had everything she needed and worked hard at keeping her at school. This was very special to Thembisa.

When Thembisa got married, her husband's family gave her the name of 'Zuzu' (short for Zusakhe) which means 'Build up' (meaning she was to build them, as a family, up). She is affectionately known to all by this name.

What keeps her going? Family. She likes to see her children “going on the right way, not to struggle like her, to enjoy the future.” Her wishes for her family is no suffering, love and happiness. She wants to see them happy.

Looking back to her childhood and growing up, it was hard for her mother, and difficult with no father. Christmas presents were a luxury, and rarely received or given. Food was important and her family had to help contribute “to the pot”. Thembisa’s June/July Winter holidays were spent finding work to support the family. She had to eventually quit school in Grade 11 to help mom.

Her first job was at Elephant House, in Addo, under the tutelage of Smokey. She was chef assistant. This led to her taking on the role of baker at Lenmore Restaurant. Thembisa now works at Chrislin African Lodge, also in Addo, as a housekeeper and occasionally helps the chef  in high season. She loves baking, singing, joking and dancing. Which is obvious when you meet her!

Looking now to the future and her wishes for this country, she doesn’t want children to suffer. Thembisa helps children in the location as much as possible. She helps get them to school and rallies those around her house to play and laugh with.

Her role model is Nelson Mandela.

'Zuzu' with her beautiful African Braiding

Thembisa, Maria, Sandra and Marie

Thembisa Cakuma 

Thembisa (fourth from right)