It was very cold when we woke up this morning – 3 degrees. Fortunately the sun shines straight into the hut (as we face east) and so it didn’t feel as cold as that. We did some early morning birding from the hut and I managed to add 2 lifers and a number of trippers (now at 108 for the trip). We went out at 8am for a drive to the vulture feeding station. There are 2 loops in the Golden Gate National Park and we are staying on one (Oribi loop) and that is the same one that the Vulture feeding station is on. We had mixed success last time seeing vultures and so we headed there at 8am because that was when we had success last time. Unfortunately no success this time so we headed back for breakfast.

Around 11:30am we decided to go out and drive the other loop after stopping at the main camp for fuel and charcoal. That loop yielded another lifer for me (Wailing Cisticola) which has taken me up to 538 lifers in total. S is now on 299 lifers so we are hoping to get her to the 300 mark very soon.

We mainly just relaxed this afternoon. A, O, S & B went for a walk up the ridge and then J, H and R did a similar one later. The sun went at 5pm from the cottage and it is feeling pretty chilly inside already (outside temp was 13 degrees C). I started the indoor fire at around 3pm to keep the chill out but it seems only partially successful. It is currently 7 degrees C and predicted to drop to 3 overnight.

We did a braai once again for our last evening that we are self-catering. We start our journey home tomorrow and seemingly we all still have a lot of food left that we are taking home. We lasted a little longer tonight. It is currently 9:20pm and I should actually post the blog tonight before I go to sleep.

Until tomorrow …

P, H (she found the one lifer today), B (he spotted it again after it went missing after H had originally found it), S, A (he braaied tonight), R, O & J