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South Africa Road Trip November 2018-Death, dying and the best sightings yet!


Towlersonsafari

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Towlersonsafari

And Blesbok and Red Hartebeest, both with very small young indeed.

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Towlersonsafari

We also saw plenty of Kudu, 

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And several times we saw, always at the same place, Grey Rysbok

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Towlersonsafari

We also enjoyed spending time with several families of yellow mongoose

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Towlersonsafari

Although they do not do justice to the view here are a couple of "landscapes"

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and probably the closest we will get to eland

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Towlersonsafari

to end the mountain Zebra part, we did go cheetah tracking, with Richard the guide, which was fun.there are 6 cheetahs with collars

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and we did see, as we were having withdrawal symptoms, these very well fed gentleman

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there were 2, and in the hour and a bit we watched them, this is as far as they moved

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We did enjoy mountain Zebra anfd thought 3 nights was a good amount of time.the staff all seemed very friendly and if it had been any warmer we would have done more night drives.Our last destination was to relax at Thunzi Bush lodge, a self-catering place set in coastal forest near Port Elizabeth from where we would fly home.We could not resist a day visit to Addo though, and the last part will deal briefly with that. 

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OMG- those wild cat kittens.....holy moly.....be still my heart  :)

 

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Towlersonsafari

yes @lmonmm how we did not "borrow" and take them home i do not know!

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Towlersonsafari

Well in the light of such sad news, I will complete the report. Thunzi Bush lodge was another new place, and was good.It could have been great  but they were preparing for the December rush so there was maintenance work that meant birding on the site impossible the day we had planned.We would suggest renting one of the bigger lodges, and trying to viod weekends when there is a lot of picnicking going on, and the less committed wildlife enthusiast but we would certainly go again.The birdlist is an impressive 192 but as the forest (and us)  is  very dense we heard much more than we saw-the Kysna louries almost constantly calling but only allowing one brief glimpse.We did see an African Marsh Harrier quite often, Black headed Oriole and several flycatchers amongst others.A forest walk we did also saw this intriguing creature

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And we cannot find out what this butterfly is

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And this is our accommodation

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Towlersonsafari

Addo

 

We did a daytrip to Addo-only about an hour away-as inspite of Port Elizabeth's "sunshine coast" moniker we have never actually seen the sun there, and it was raining. it was greta to see elephants so relaxed, but we are never quite sure about staying there!

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Towlersonsafari

We also saw many many Kudu, warthog and plains Zebra

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and a new, for us Tortoise! we think this very small tortoise is a padloper! hurrah!

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Towlersonsafari

Our last full day of the holiday saw us take a boat trip on the Sundays river-Addo cruises.Taking one look at us the enthusiastic crew thought we were probably not quite the types for sand boarding, so we went upstream and enjoyed a gentle birdwatching session, with Giant malachite and Pied kingfisher, Grey and Goliath heron, Night Heron and white fronted Kingfisher to name a few,

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Look an actual bird in flight shot!

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Towlersonsafari

Thank you all who have "liked" and commented on our splendid holiday! if anyone wants more info, or wants to meet up at birdfair or just keep in touch I-we-would love to hear from you. I don't know if there are rules about giving out email addresses so will leave you with this, our reaction on hearing about the closure of this wonderful wonderful site

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Thank you for a wonderful report. Very enjoyable indeed.

 

:(Your last photo sums up our feelings very well.

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Thanks for another great report. It was great "meeting" you on safaritalk and you guys really added a lot of colour to my reports personally and like many others on here you will be missed. The highest honor I can give you is I immediately read your trip report even though I usually avoid South Africa and Botswana trip reports. 

 

You can exchange emails with anyone via private message.

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Thanks for the report, it felt good to read this instead of our dire news here. You had lots of great sightings, I always enjoy seeing some of the more unusual animals, and you had plenty of them. And  absolutely, Tony, an incredibly fitting final picture!:(

Edited by michael-ibk
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Towlersonsafari

Taking a leaf out of @offshorebirder 's book if anyone wants it our email address is sckt99 at googlemail.com !

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@Towlersonsafari, thank you for a excellent report. To see birds which we have never seen before is a plus. With regard to camera use at night l suggest having a look on the internet, with a bit of trial and error, l went on a 6 x 2 hour coarse at the local college, but didn’t learn much as it was more aimed at general use of the camera.

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What a splendid trip report, @Towlersonsafari, with equally excellent photography. I would never give G9 to be able to produce such detailed photos, but in experienced hands, it did! Thank you for taking me to some old places and some new places ... South Africa has so much to offer.

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Have much enjoyed this report @Towlersonsafari - great sightings including Aardvark, Aardwolf, Brown Hyena, those delightful wild cat kittens and I cannot fail to mention Caracal (with a touch of envy!) all interlaced with your interesting and good humoured commentary. Thank You.

 

PS  Did your Whistling Rat whistle at you or Jane?

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Dave Williams

Excellent report and, as @xelas has already mentioned, the G9 has surprised me too.Excellent images in a portable package.

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Towlersonsafari

thank you very much   @Dave Williams I did really try to think a bit about the photos! and thank you @Caracal thankfully the whistling rat did not see me as a threat and knew Jane is a veggie so did not feel the need to whistle!

Ta very much @xelas not experienced hands but more very obliging animals! and thank you @CDL111 in fact the "water vole workshop" i did earlier in the year did help with the photos. I think the big micro four thirds weakness is lowlight photography but iwe have a cunning plan-buy a camcorder which is much better at night time and is yet another way to bore our friends and family. Jane used to do a lot of that but episodes such as the "rock" kestrel above put her off

Edited by Towlersonsafari
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Dave Williams

Jane's photography might not make National Geographic but she could have an exhibition at the Tate Modern without a doubt.:ph34r:

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Towlersonsafari

Ha! @Dave Williams  she has promised to exhibit alongside her  planned unique takes on Boulder Chat  Stone Curlew and with apologies,  Cliff-chaff  

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The “rock kestrel” is surely modern art!

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  • 5 months later...

What a wonderful report @Towlersonsafari - not sure how I missed reading this it. Awesome photo's all round :) .

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