We went for a (bird) walk before breakfast at 7am and S & B added 2 lifers to their list. A coffee stop at the Lazy Lizard and then back to our guest house for breakfast, pack the cars and hit the road.
We took the Swartberg Pass which (not surprisingly) runs over the Swartberg mountain range. It was completed in 1888. The dry-stone retaining walls that are in place today are still the original ones so now over 130 years old. The pass is a dirt road but in good condition and easily navigated in our cars. The scenery was spectacular as you start almost immediately driving through the high rock faces (photo above). We stopped a few times on the way up and then again right at the top of the pass which is at 1575 meters above sea level. The scenery on the other side of the pass is farmlands and valleys and beautiful in a different way.
We then headed to Oudtshoorn where we filled up our cars and then headed to Willowmore in the Eastern Cape. On leaving Oudtshoorn we managed to lose B & S because their navigation software took them in the opposite direction. We all ended up in Willowmore for lunch at least though B & S arrived a little after the other 2 cars.
After lunch we headed to Aberdeen (quick detour through the town to find H’s Moms old house) then Graaff-Reinet and then onto our overnight stop being Ganora Guest Farm near Nieu Bethesda. The last 2 hours of driving were not the easiest because it started to rain and the wind was blowing. The final 20 kms were on a dirt road leading up to the farm. The navigation software had the speed limit on that road as 100 km/h but there is no way you could do that at all – even 40 km/h sometimes seemed too fast.
Before dinner we watched the owner feeding a lanner falcon and a cape eagle owl – both of them have broken wings and so they are caring for them. The lanner falcon has just been with them for a week but the owl has been with them for 3 years (and is unlikely to improve). They do dinner at the farm and we had ostrich steak (which seemed very fitting) plus veg & potatoes followed by malva pudding. Simple but very enjoyable.
Bird list up to 36 birds at the end of today for me – everyone on slightly different numbers as we have all seen slightly different things while driving.
Until tomorrow (trying to send quickly as loadshedding is at 9pm tonight)
P, S (she gets a rise by virtue of the other two falling), H (severely critical of the blog I wrote yesterday), B (kept getting lost today – maybe even worthy of two drops of places but he let me drink his wine last night so I saved him from a two person drop), R (did some excellent bird spotting including a Cape Rockjumper), J (she defended me a few times today so deserves a rise actually), O (some good quips over the walkie talkie today), A (just ended up here by virtue of the others rising above him)
