For the whole report here is a link to my Trip Report plus quite a few pages of photos on my web site. http://www.coventrybirder.co.uk/mai...ip%20report.htm
South Africa was a mixture of brilliant and bad. The weather for the first two weeks was incredibly bad. I have attached three photos of the weather going up to Cape Vidal on the east coast but the weather was even worse than that at Cape Town.
We managed to get out on the Pelagic on Nov 10th but that had to be aborted early because of bad weather coming in earlier than had been forecast. I only got four lifers on that Pelagic, Shy & Yellow-nosed Albatross and White-cheeked and Pintado Petrels. There were others along the way out but they were of birds we would see elsewhere in the coming weeks any way.
We left Cape Town two days earlier than planned because we were caught up in fierce gale force winds and torrential rain which was forecast for the rest of the week.
We drove a couple of hundred miles and camped overnight at the Karoo N.P and the weather here was good. We spent a few hours around the area on Nov 11th and a few more on Nov 12th before moving onto Garingboom a day early. Karoo showed enough potential to make you realise that far more time should have been given to this unplanned stopover.
The weather and birds at Garingboom were brilliant in the two days we were there. What an amazing day the full day we had there was. The Griesel's own the place and his wife, Riette offered to take us on a two / three hour drive around their huge farm for a donation to the Raptor Fund they help support. This turned out to be about five plus hours as there was so much to take in. I can highly recommend staying at Garingboom and using Riette as a guide. She is a brilliant guide and knows her territory like the back of her hand. Here is a link to their web site. http://www.garingboom.co.za. This is their contact numbers. Tel No +27517830203. Cell phone +27829009888
Sani we arrived a day early in torrential rain and fog, which never left us. We couldn't get up to Lesotho and had to turn back at the border. Consequently the amount of species seen suffered badly and we left Sani a day early as well.
Karkloof and Cape Vidal was total rain and fog but we had fairly decent weather for two of the three days at Bonamanzi. At Karkloof we were fortunate to have an incredibly good guide that we had booked through Rockjumpers. It was Glen Valentine and he is one guide I can't speak of highly enough. If ever you are in the Pietermarizbrerg area I would recommend that you get in touch with Rockjumpers and ask for Glen as your guide. You will be well pleased. Here are their contact details. http://rockjumper.co.za. Phone numbers are: +27333940225 or +27333940251
We left Bonamanzi for Wakkerstroom, staying at Toad Hall in Wakkerstroom and I can recommend here as a place to stay. Here is their web site address. http://www.wakkerstroom.com & their phone number's +27 (0)17 730-0427.
A local guide name Norman was booked through Toad Hall and like Glen at Rockjumpers Norman is another guide that I can highly recommend. Here the weather started to improve and the birding with it. On our guided tour with Norman we had over 100 species, some of them seemingly pulled out of thin air by him. His vision was almost uncanny at times as some of the birds he picked out were invisible to us until he pointed them out.
From Wakkerstroom onwards the weather improved and at Kruger it became extremely hot. We had one night at Berg En Dal, two at Lower Sabie and two at Satara before moving onto Dulstroom via the Taita Falcon site. The temperatures in Kruger were in the low 30's by 08.30am and by the afternoon had reached the high 30's making it a little uncomfortable in the car. The upside of this were both the variety of birds and animals seen. I have to say that this is an area I would love to have spent three weeks in on it's own.
At Dullstroom the main quarries were Cape Eagle Owl and Watttled Crane and the day was finished trying to find a Cape Eagle Owl at the Dullstroom Municipal Dam, but the weather turned viciously within seconds going from a calm day to gale force winds and torrential rain which forced us to retire back to the Tumbleweeds Backpackers. This is definitely a bacpackers I can highly recommend. The views are superb and the accommodation was excellent. It is well positioned for a base for exploring this area of South Africa.
After our night at the Backpackers It was decided to drive to the Veloren Valei Nature Reserve but not before ringing them for permission to go there, which was granted. You do need to ring them a day in advance if possible otherwise you won't get onto the reserve as the gates are locked. Their phone number is: 083 363 0489.
We arrived at the gates and one of the local guides was there and for a small fee he took us around the reserve and thankfully found us three Wattled Cranes, which was a nice bonus and the only lifer of the day and in fact the last lifer of the trip.
We did about the 5300kms. So far our count is 364 species (which includes a White-cheeked Bulbul at Abhu Dhabi airport). 289 were lifers for me. We are still working on photos taken by Ivan and David on birds that I could see but not photograph (wrong side of the car).
We had some brilliant moments such as been faced up by a White Rhino on one of the tracks in Kruger plus a huge male Lion walking right near the car and staying around us for about ten minutes. I got a good photo of both but only when they had moved away from us a bit.
I have finished my trip report and put it onto my web site. I have only summarised it as it would have been too long and boring to have done a detailed one. I have placed links to a lot of pages of photos. One is for animals only and all the others are birds photographed throughout the trip. Each page has a date range and can be found at the top of the main trip report page. If you want to take a look here is a link to it. http://www.coventrybirder.co.uk/mai...ip%20report.htm
Some of the photos are good, some not so good which is not surprising considering that just before I caught the plane to South Africa I found that my image stabiliser button had snapped off. Thankfully my insurance covered the repair (£162) and I got the camera back last Saturday. Unfortunately it cost me some good shots in South Africa.
So that was it. Given the chance I would love to go back as we missed so much. We couldn't get up to Table Mountain as it was under cloud and rain. We missed loads of stuff around the Cape Town area, which possibly cost us 100 + birds not seen, plus I would love to do the Pelagic in calmer conditions as the conditions we faced were ridiculously bad.
I have added the Lion and Rhino photos below and I will do another post with some other bird photos as tasters of the trip.
John
Here are five tasters.
1. Diedrick Cuckoo
2. Green-backed Heron
3. Brown-hooded Kingfisher
4. Yellow-billed Hornbill
5. Lilac-breasted Roller.
John
Good link and some nice pics Reader, esp those sandgrouse - note on Nov 22 you've accidently got a pic of Speckled Pigeon labelled as Red-eyed Dove!
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