Volunteered to ring bark some wattles while at Zvakanaka and while doing so came across what I first thought was a flower. Closer inspection revealed a new leaf of a forest grape Rhoisissus tomentosa.
Heard that a good place to find blue-spotted dove was the botanical garden in Thoyando so went for a womble. It may have once been a botanical garden but is now mostly infested with aleins, one bright spot was a pair of pink-throated twin-spots feeding on a patch of lawn - no doves though.
En-route to Thoyando I passed a turn off for Lake Fundudzi which apart from being the only fresh-water lake in RSA is considered sacred by the Venda. Went to have a look and noticed patches of red on a recently burnt area which turned out to be the original Barberton daises Gerbera barbertonia. Not quite as big as the ones in flower shop but brilliantly coloured.
As per normal you very soon run out of signposts and at one point I passed a sign pointing back the way I'd just come but eventually found a lookout point by pure luck. Couldn't find a way down so had to make do with a hazy view of it in the distance.
Was at a car-wash in town that has an immense ficus in it's yard and while sitting it's shadow I noticed a pair of white-eyes flitting around it's base and emitting agitated calls. Went to have a look and found this little idiot that had made it's maiden flight a little too early. Put it up on a wall and it promptly flew down again so tried the tree and last saw it scampering up into the canopy.
Whilst on another mission to try and find a waterfall with singularly bad sign-posting came across this dam and decided to atlas the pentad that it was in. While scanning for water birds I found a massive croc sunning itself on the far bank - not a good place to cool off then.
Returning from Mkuse I was asked if I could move to Sam's camp as one of their long time guests had booked the one I was on. No quite as shady but still extremely well appointed.
Alistair and Gail very kindly offered to babysit the Beast while I zipped down to Cape Town to hook up with Sally who had come out for a wedding. She met me at the airport, we collected a car and headed for Clanwilliam. She had never been that far up the West Coast and there was an off-chance that there may be flowers about. There weren't, so I suggest Stadsaal caves up in the Cederberg. On our way there we came across this bunch which reminded me that my old friend Al had once asked a sheep farmer what they were doing. "Thinking up new ways to die" was the curt answer.
Went past a massive field of these Bulbinella nutans as well so there were still a few flowers around.
Have posted pictures of Stadsaal (Town Hall) caves before, but the rock formations are so spectacular reckoned a second peek wouldn't come amiss. The cave itself is under this lot.
Here's my darling Sally who inherited the title of prettiest girl in my world after her mother died. She now owns a horse and spent a great deal of time enlightening me on the subject of warm-bloods et al, quite fascinating.
Where do you think the idea of gargoyles came from?
Another cave houses the marvelous Elephant paintings which are only as pristine as this as there is a huge grill protecting the site from graffiti idiots and compulsive name scrawlers.
On our return had to stop at Lot's Wife who has fortunately not had any more paint applied.
A little bouquet of Ruschia caroli of almost metallic pink.............
...........and a completely natural Stonehenge.
All too short and three nights later I was back in Boksburg for a couple of nights before heading for the hills again. A notice came through on the rare bird alert site that a bar-tailed godwit was hanging around one of the pans in Benoni so went for a look as I've only ever seen it once. Apologies for the picture but just look at that beak, if size really does matter..............
Finally left Zvanaka and headed for a place near Bela Bela (Warnbaths) and 160 kms later I remembered that I'd left caravan extension cable behind. As I wasn't likely to find a replacement where I was headed I dumped the Beast in a One-stop and headed back. That little excursion cost me four hours and as I wasn't likely to get to my destination before dark I headed for a place called Weesgerus near Modimolle. Had looked at the camp before but decided I preferred the quieter Emerentia Geldenhuis down the road. Ended up staying for a few nights but the place was so unashamedly Afrikaaans that when I filled in the forms I very nearly wrote Dawid. As Nyslvlei was near I popped in one morning but it was very dry, still, managed to see an amazing pair of crimson boubous who were foraging near one of the hides.
...................and in the camp Cape planes Ochna arborea were either showing off their tightly clustered yellow blooms..............
.............or the even more splendid orange sepals that surround the fruit.
Best laid plans of mice and men! I left Weesgerus and headed for my next stop near Bela Bela and on arrival found the gates firmly locked and a large sign that said "Closed until further notice". Ooower fok as the Afrikaners would have it. At a loss and thinking the only place that would have space on a Friday would be the massive Forever Warmbaths, I checked in for the weekend. Baaaad mistake. Seems everybody in Gauteng wanted to be there that weekend. I left when the doof doof music started at 6.30 on Sunday morning and headed for Loskop. The nicest thing about this type of life is that the view keeps changing and you would have a hard time faulting this one. I booked in for a month.
