When scouting for another site near Durban, I happened upon a very pleasant caravan park 5 km south of Kingsburgh called Karridene which I'd never even heard of before. Situated in the grounds of the Protea Hotel it has 60 sites and very few visitors. The old R102 on one side and the railway line on the other do somewhat mar the ambiance but it's bearable and the ablutions and security are top notch. The beach is just a couple of hundred metres away and accessed via an elegant boardwalk.
Once there, many kilometers of beach stretch to the horizon and there are even "beach monitors" who make sure the patrons are undisturbed. One of them lurks near the estuary - you may be able to make out the little high-viz vest to the left of the water - and he is there to strongly advise people not to venture into the wilds beyond the river.
With school holidays looming I decided to check in for a month and figured that if things got too hectic I could escape to Boksburg and leave the van on site. A species that you had to head up the north coast as far as Mtunzini to see when I first arrived in Durban in the late 80's, is now common all the way down to East London. Meet the three stooges or woolly-necked storks who are often around scrounging from the happy campers.
Though not well endowed with trees a short avenue of coastal hairy guarri Euclea natalensis provided a singularly attractive haven for bees drawn by the blossoms which are not extravagant but release a sweet fragrance that fills the air.
Even though the camp grounds are manicured with a fervour that's almost manic and contain very little in the way of indigenous stuff, these brave and imaginatively named, "small red iris" Freesia laxa managed to bloom before the weed whacker got them. The laxa part refers to the use of their crushed bulbs as a cure for constipation.
Just up the road in Amanzimtoti is a bird park, which wasn't sporting much in the way of species when I visited but this little dusky flycatcher was particularly confiding. There is a wonderful poem about cats which mentions that they "sit fat", a trait shared by these guys.
Went to re-visit a former haunt down the way in Pennington, a tiny little reserve that contains the only locally occurring specimens of the mammoth sea bean creeper Entada rheedii. The seed pods are up to 2 m long and contain smooth, shiny brown seeds that are flattish and reach 60 mm in diameter. The preferred habitat is coastal forest and estuary margins and the seeds are often bourne out to sea and found washed up on the beach, though I've never been fortunate enough to come across one.
From there ii's a short drive to Umdoni Forest and the sublime golf course with it's striking club house and while admiring the view something out at sea caught the attention of my companion. Orca or killer whales were lifting their tails clear of the water then slapping them onto the surface, something I'd only ever seen on TV. The pod cuts off a bait ball of sardines from the main school and the percussion of tails hitting the water close to the fish stuns them so they can be picked off at leisure - absolutely amazing.
A short way inland is Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve, still one of the best birding spots around though it was rather late in the day. However a recent burn had allowed common gazanias G. krebsiana enough elbow room for a dazzling display.
While exploring Amanzimtoti, I found a road that teeters on the edge of a precipice that drops 30 m to the beach and provided a view of the docking platform used to unload crude oil from tankers directly into the monster Sapref refinery behind the dunes.
A second visit to Umdoni to try for a picture of the brown scrub robins that are pretty abundant there was a failure, but I did manage to get a shot of another forest dweller, the exceptionally noisy square-tailed drongo. The only difference between them and their fork-tailed cousins being habitat and less of a notch in the tail.
Though it doesn't look like much, this tree is specially marked because it appears to be headed towards natural extinction. The sandstone quince Dahlgrenodendron natalense is not only rare but has very low reproduction rate.
Back in the car park I almost stood on this feisty character, a land crab that was not overawed by my size and quite prepared to take me on. It's a fresh water species that is often found some way from water but still needs to wet it's gills periodically to survive.
In the grounds of AE&CI's massive factory near Ubogintwini is Umbogavango Nature Reserve which serves as a water monitoring site and environmental education centre that soothes the corporate conscience. Much in evidence were the blood or snake lilies Scadoxus puniceus showing off their scarlet pincushions. The alternative name derives from the fact that the bulbs are poisonous.
This magnificent creature was having difficulties trying to perch on the top of a dead gum.......
....but the Owl House didn't appear to have any visitors..............
............and sadly the wetland area that used to be a magnet for at least 6 species of duck now only attracts........Hadedas, looking quite spiffy in breeding plumage though.
Dozens of yellow weavers were plundering palms for nest material and building furiously.
During an afternoon drive around Isipingo I came across a sight that brought back some unpleasant memories of a bakkie unintentionally parked in a toilet block. It also drew a conceited smile of realization that I'm not the only idiot in the world. A member of our illustrious police force was taking a quiet (and illegal) drive along the beach and didn't think to walk the river before tackling it. Result - one brand new Hilux that will probably never recover from it's swim.
A stroll along the beach turned up what I initially wrote off as a blacksmith lapwing, but closer inspection proved to be a grey plover. A migrant from the Arctic tundra this one was freshly arrived and still sporting some breeding plumage. At a lecture on shore birds that I once attended, the speaker, the jocular Gordon Bennett said the easiest way to identify them in non-breeding plumage was to get them to fly, because like many Mediterranean women they have black armpits.
Returned from shopping and found these that two had invented a wonderful game. One would lift the ground sheet and scamper around under it while the other tacked him from above.
Was sitting on the "stoep" having a sundowner when I noticed a smear of cloud on that huge orange ball, reminded me of Jupiter.
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