Delana & I left Pearly Beach for the long drive north on 24th March. This time we decided to make it a more leisurely affair by first overnighting at De Rust, which is about 360kms along the route. It was a pleasant & uneventful drive, arriving late afternoon to our little cottage on the main street of this charming town.
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We enjoyed a good meal & then visited the local pub, in fact the only pub in town! We had a nice evening chatting to locals & the owners of the bar & I ended up buying their T-shirt!
We drove the 665 kms to Jacobsdal the next day. It is a long, but scenic drive through the Karoo, which looked green after recent rains. We were to stay two nights here with Delana's brother Eric & his wife Alfreda. It was all about family catch up time. At one point we drove through an amazing swarm of locusts, which was quite an experience!
On the 26th March we drove to the nearby Moderfontein Battlefield site. Where in 1899 the Boers defeated the larger British Army. The location is very nice, set in good acacia country, where we found both Fairy Flycatcher & Southern Grey Tit. Here right on the edge of the Tit's range.
Managed to finally get a decent photo of Little Swift. A pair were breeding under the roof of the observation point. Other good birds included Alpine Swift. Unfortunately we arrived quite late in the morning, too late to do much birding. However, the area looked promising for a more extended visit in the future.
The next day we drove north to Bloemfontein to visit Francois & Juantelle & spent a nice evening watching the Saudi Grand Prix, which turned out to be quite exciting!
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We arrived in Burkea Park in Pretoria the next day & for the next few days set about the long list of mundane jobs which we have to complete, before going to Sabie Park. No meaningful birding was done but we did see a group of European Bee-eaters flying north & a late migrant Willow Warbler.
On 2nd April I did a short walk around the house & nearby bush racking up 51 species in short order. The best being a female Black Cuckooshrike, which was unusual at this time of year for this location. The next day I did a birding circuit of around nine kilometers around the entire golf estate & Burkea Park. It was a hot morning & birding activity was a little slow, but I did record 70 species including a fine Lanner & an immature South African Cliff Swallow. Even as we go into the winter months, birding is interesting here, as there is a fine range of micro habitats within a relatively small area.
The next two days was all about rain! The rain was incessant & it made organization of the two vehicles & the trailer at first difficult, & then impossible. We could be delayed here! Between the rain on the 3rd April several parties of European Bee-eaters overflew the garden at a tremendous height. Presumably heading north. They were so high that you couldn't see them but hear their distinctive call continuously.
One of the jobs we did, was buy & then pad protective cases for the new scope & for all our cameras. Delana & I do a lot of off-road driving & we wanted cases that give more protection to our valuable equipment, including keeping out the dreaded African dust! It was interesting visiting the small factory where they cut out the hardened foam & fit out the cases which are of various sizes. Not a cheap option, but one we felt was necessary, in order to safeguard our equipment.
Charging our batteries in the rain was not fun, but necessary, as my house in Sabie Park is off-grid & we tend to use the power.
Patsy came to visit for a few days, which was nice, but it was a working visit with Delana so we didn't do much, but we did manage one night out together.
