As we had a long day ahead, we had decided that cars should be packed before breakfast, breakfast at 7am and then we head home. It was just over 800 kms we needed to travel and we all wanted to arrive home before it was too late in the afternoon. We had the car packed by sunrise which gave us 30 minutes to do some birding before breakfast but we didn't add anything new despite there...

Today was the start of our travel back home. When we woke this morning at 6am, the valley was covered in cloud/mist which was hard to capture as a photo but a few people gave it a try. Photo below was courtesy of B. We were packed up before 8am and on the road to just north of Colesberg where we had our last overnight before heading home. A quick refueling and tyre pumping at the...

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...

As the crow flies it is only 38 kms from Afriski to Golden Gate National Park (our next stop). However, there is a the small matter of the Drakensberg/Maluti mountain range directly between these two places. We needed to do about an hours drive in Lesotho to the border crossing (at Butha Buthe) called Caledon. The road was windy windy (as in not straight) and with quite a few potholes. It was slow going (or felt...

We were waken a number of times last night as a thunderstorm unleashed itself on the area. The lightening lit up the night sky and the thunder rattled the windows. It rained heavily and at one point it hailed and I could actually see the hail ricocheting off the windows and hoped it wasn't hard enough or big enough to damage our cars. The lightening was so close that at one point I wasn't even able...

Yesterday was the day we did the Sani Pass for the 2nd time. We last did it in 2019 (just before Covid struck) and at the time we had purposed to do it again. Where we were staying was just over an hour to the foot of the Sani Pass. We agreed to leave early (6:30am) so that we got the best driving conditions and the morning light. There were patches of mist in the lower...

We woke this morning at before 6am just as it was starting to become light. It was a crisp, fresh morning with hints of mist at the foot of the Maluti Mountain range. B & O went for a run at about 6:30am and H, S, R, J and myself went for a birding walk at 7am. It wasn't as productive as we would have hoped but we did add a few lifers for S and...

None of us were looking forward to the road out of Coffee Bay but fortunately the owner of the place we were staying at gave us an alternative route which (while longer) cut off the worst 30 kms of potholes. We headed out at about 8:30am knowing the drive was around 5.5 hours (if we didn't stop). The road was definitely better even though it was dirt road for most of the way. We could generally...

If you didn't know, Coffee Bay takes it name from a ship that run aground nearby and it was carrying coffee. It seems the area is known for ships running aground because not far from here (5kms only) the Oceanos sank in 1991 (if you were alive then you will remember it). All the passengers and crew survived, Some of the group went on an early morning run while the rest of us didn't. I did...

Today was a big travel day. Ganora Farm to Coffee Bay was 7.5 hours on Waze and that is not allowing for stops. 560 kms - which you would usually think would take 5-6 hours allowing for you traveling between 100-120 km/h. Read on to see why it takes 7.5 hours without stops. Before breakfast, J managed to get to feed the lambs (see pic above). Little does she know that all she is doing is...