Cape Town - Table Top Mountain. Up and down on the cable car with a 30 minute walk along a trail at the top. Cape Town - V & A Waterfront. Harbour/marina areas. Stellenbosch - Four vineyards for most of the day. Garden areas and farmland, all a few kilometres out of town. De Zeekoe Hotel grounds a few kms south of Oudtshoorn. A working farm with trails, a lake and a small reservoir. Adjacent to the Olifants River with reedbed. Wilderness Beach and Estuary. Nearby Island Lake and Rondevlei Lake where there was a bird hide. Lily Pond Hotel grounds and adjoining Natures Valley, north of Plettenberg Bay. Bitou River Valley, also north of Plettenberg Bay. Pumba Private Game Reserve, 18k acres, an hour or so north east of Port Elizabeth.
The route we took after three nights in Cape Town was to head for Stellenbosch and the 'wine country' and following that, a five hour drive to Oudtshoorn and the Garden Route. Next stop was Wilderness, then Plettenberg Bay, before finishing with a three night stay at Pumba Private Game Reserve. Just short of 900 miles in total.
The scenery is delightful, very green at this time of year and much diverse habitat. Lovely mountains near Cape Town, the Klein Karoo, farmland, gorges, wetlands, river valleys and coastal areas. The roads are generally very good and even the dirt track type roads can be driven at decent speeds. Contrary to what is spewed out in the media, the people are friendly and genuinely want tourists to come back to help what is currently a stuttering economy. Yes, you have to be careful about doing certain things at certain times and you have to remember that you are in Africa. We never experienced any hassle at any time. The food and drink are cheap, roughly 50-75% of prices in the UK and the exchange rate is favourable. A bit of a cliche when folk say 'we'll be back' but this is definitely a country I would wish to visit again. Probably our best ever holiday.
Field Guide - The SASOL Birds of Southern Africa. An excellent guide which also covers Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho.
As is the norm, Mrs J and our two friends are non birders, so it was a case of doing what I could, when I could. No half days off on my own and no guiding.
Trip List :-
Common Ostrich White-faced Whistling-Duck Egyptian Goose South African Shelduck Yellow-billed Duck Cape Teal Helmeted Guineafowl Cape Spurfowl Red-necked Spurfowl Greater Flamingo Little Grebe Great Crested Grebe Rock Pigeon Speckled Pigeon Red-eyed Dove Ring-necked Dove Laughing Dove Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove Knysna Turico White-browed Coucal African Swift White-rumped Swift African Palm Swift Eurasian Moorhen Red-knobbed Coot African Swamphen Blue Crane Spotted Thick-Knee Water Thick-Knee Black-winged Stilt African Oystercatcher Black-bellied Plover Three-banded Plover Blacksmith Lapwing White-fronted Plover Grey-hooded Gull Hartlaub's Gull Kelp Gull Whiskered tern Arctic tern Common Tern Sandwich Tern Great Crested tern African Penguin Cape Gannet African Darter Long-tailed Cormorant Bank Cormorant Cape Cormorant Great (White-breasted) Cormorant Hamerkop Little Bittern Black-crowned Night Heron Little Egret Western Cattle Egret Grey Heron Black-headed heron African Sacred Ibis Hadada Ibis Black-winged Kite African Harrier-Hawk African Marsh Harrier Black Harrier Black (Yellow-billed) Kite African Fish-Eagle Common Buzzard Jackal Buzzard Spotted Eagle-Owl Speckled Mousebird Eurasian (African) Hoopoe Brown-hooded Kingfisher Pied Kingfisher Rufous-necked Wryneck Knysna Woodpecker Rock Kestrel Cape Batis Southern Boubou Fork-tailed Drongo Southern Fiscal House Crow Cape Crow Pied Crow White-necked Raven Karoo Lark Rufous-naped Lark Karoo Prinia Piping Cisticola Zitting Cisticola Common Reed Warbler Black Sawwing Rock Martin Pearl-breasted Swallow Barn Swallow White-throated Swallow Greater Striped Swallow Sombre Greenbul Common Bulbul Cape Bulbul Cape White-eye Red-billed Oxpecker European Starling Red-winged Starling African Pied Starling Cape Starling Olive Thrush Karoo Thrush Fiscal Flycatcher Cape Robin-Chat Chorister Robin-Chat African Stonechat Amethyst Sunbird Malachite Sunbird Southern Double-collared Sunbird Greater Double-collared Sunbird Spectacled Weaver Cape Weaver African Golden-Weaver Southern Masked-Weaver Red-billed Quelea Southern Red Bishop Pin-tailed Whydah House Sparrow Cape Sparrow Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Cape Wagtail African Pipit Cape Canary
A few photos attached of Rufous-necked Wryneck, White-fronted Plover, Southern Red Bishop, African Stonechat, African Penguin and Knysna Turico.
Best time to visit The Cape is August when all the Albatrosses,Shearwaters and Petrels are wintering off the Cape,and the Southern Right Whales are a couple of 100yds offshore of which we saw at least 30.I spent 3 weeks there a few years ago,went as far as Namibia and over to the Kalahari and down the Garden Route.Apart from one grotty warbler we more or less cleaned up.Its dead cheap,roads are empty and its hassle free.Did two pelagics and got strokeable views of 5 species of Albatross plus lots of good seabirds and several cetaceans.Would recommend to anybody,really easy country to do yourself,lots of gen for the harder species,and penguins hiding under your car at Boulders Beach!!.
The birds on the 25th look a bit suspect- after wine tasting????You will be saying next that City beat United twice this season!!!!!Oh! Happen not then
Just spent 10 days in Cape Town on holiday with my wife, we stayed with her uncle in Simon's Town which is South of Cape Town on the coast in False Bay. All the birds I saw were whilst doing typical tourist stuff. 17th, around the house and in Simon's Town; Cape Sugarbird, Familiar Chat, Laughing Dove, Common Waxbill, Karoo Prinia, Barn Swallow, Red-Winged Starling, Cape White Eye, Grey Heron, Cape Cormorant, African Penguin, Kelp Gull, Hartlaubs Gull, Pied Crow, Common Fiscal Shrike, Cape wagtail plus unidentified Tern sp. 18th, Table Mountain; Rock Kestrel, Verreaux's Eagle, Ground Woodpecker, Rock Pigeon. Aruond Cape Town; Helmeted Guineafowl, African Goshawk, Cattle Egret, Cape Crow, House Sparrow, Starling. 19th, Simons Town; Cape Robin-Chat, Cape Siskin, Southern Lesser Double-Collared Sunbird, Olive Thrush, Greater Striped Swallaw, Speckled Muosebird, Sacred Ibis. 20th Kommetjie Bay; Blacksmith Lapwing, African Black Oyster Catcher, Hadeda Ibis, Red-Eye Dove. 20th Stellenbosch(Spier Vineyard); African Darter, Egyptian Goose, Black Shouldered Kite, Red-knobbed Coot, African Black Swift, Southern Masked Weaver. 22nd, Cape Peninsula; Ostrich, White Breasted Cormorant, Swift Tern, Brown Throated Martin, Cape Bulbul, Malachite Sunbird. 23rd,Kirstenbosch(National Gardens); Cape Frankolin, Cape Turtle Dove, Orange Breasted Sunbird(amazing bird!). 24th Rondevlei Reserve, Cape Town, spent 30mins here early a.m. the only dedicated birdwatch and it is worth a whole day!; GCGrebe, Little Grebe, Great White Pelican, Reed Cormorant, Little Egret, African Spoonbill, Spur Winged Goose, Yellow Billed Duck, African Swamp Hen, Common Moorhen, Glossy Ibis, Caspian Tern. 25th Somerset West, wine tasting; Little Swift, White Rumped Swift, Steppe Buzzard, Swee Waxbill. In all I think 70 different species without really trying, the area is amazing scenically and the food is excellent and cheap, I would definately recommend it although we did have the advantage of free accomodation. Other wildlife seen; Rock Hyrax, Chakma Baboons, Bontibok Antelope and Giant Tortoise. Cheers Ian
, honest
Oh! Happen not then