Birds of the Inner City - Burchell's Coucal

I started a project a few months back, to see how many birds I could photograph in the inner city. Though many of the birds live quite happily in the concrete jungle, we are fortunate to have some well treed public open space alongside our neighbourhood, which makes it attractive for the more shy birds, like the Burchell's Coucal.

So far I have managed to photograph 24 birds and am still trying to get some elusive characters such as the Cape Eagle Owl and the Cape White-eyes.

Fantasy Lighthouse

The lighthouse at Seal Point, Cape St Francis has many moods. It just depends on what time of the day you happen to be there and what the whether is like. It is seen here reflecting in a pool..............

Birding in the RSA - African Hoepoe

African Hoepoe photographed at Addo.

Adventures with Koos - Camdeboo National Park

What would have been a trip to a local dietitian for most normal families ended up being a 600 km round trip, for me and Suzie. You see the dietitian she chose for us to see is based in Somerset East, about 180 kms from our front door and from there we decided to head for Graaf Reinet, a further 124 km away as we had heard that snow had fallen in the area. Needless to say any traces of snow had long since vanished by the time we got there, but that was no hardship as the country side is nothing short of spectacular.

And then we very foolishly decided to spend the night in a safari tent at the Camdeboo National Park. At any other time of the year it would have been great, but the next day we learnt the temperature had dropped -4 degrees centigrade. It was no wonder when we went to bed we were swathed in winter pajamas, scarves and beanies and a pile of blankets and duvets. Only our eyes and noses visible as we snuggled in our beds and great clouds of vapour filled the tent when we breathed out.

One generally associates Graaf Reinet with the Valley of Desolation, but the next day our sight seeing took us up the Koedoeskloof 4x4 trail  where were greeted by these spectacular views of the plains of the Camdeboo.

If you want to experience this view the only way up this mountain is in a 4x4 and it is well worth the trip.

The road has, I believe been upgraded, but I would still recommend low range 4x4 going up.

So, going to the dietitian does not have to be a boring or routine visit.

Kragga Kamma Magic

It was a real treat to spend the night at the Kragga Kamma Game Park and to wake up to all sorts of game on our front lawn, like giraffe, ostriches, warthogs and nyala.

This young nyala bull was part of a group that came past shortly after sunrise.