Today was our last day. Our flight was at 1pm and so we had plenty of time to accumulate numbers 199 & 200 on the bird trip list. We had a late start as there was no need to rush as we were only just over 2 hours away from the airport.

After packing up we headed to the Sunset Dam one last time to see if we could add any birds to the trip list. No luck there. Then we headed south but made one last crossing over the Sabie River. That was a good call because not only did we get no. 199 for the trip, but it was also 504 of the lifer list – Great Reed-Warbler. Warblers are still our stumbling block as we haven’t managed to identify to many of them as yet. This one we managed to ID through both the call and the look. It is actually key to be able to ID through the call because they look so alike.

We then headed south to Crocodile Bridge camp and gate. We took the dirt road as I think it is a better road for game. We didn’t see any predators but we did see a large herd of buffalo and elephant. On every game drive we did in the last 2 weeks, we saw at least one of the Big 5 and the majority of drives we saw two or more.

By the time we turned back onto the tar road (about 4 kms short of the gate), we still hadn’t seen no. 200 yet and then about a km from the gate we finally saw no. 200 – White fronted bee-eater (pretty common bird but we hadn’t seen one as yet on the trip). That is the first time we have achieved 200 birds in a 2-week trip. Our birding is definitely improving.

We got to the airport at about 11am. Remarkably we saw black Impala at the airport (see photo). This is not something you see much at all and in fact I thought they were only found in one place in SA. Uneventful flight home – we actually landed 30 minutes early.

Until next time …

P & H