Getting things back together

The surgery to remove the cataracts over (thanks Giles), it was time to head back to Boksburg.  Decided to use Hlalanathi to store the Beast as their rates are good and it is so beautiful that I stayed for three nights before heading off.  Just outside the gate the hillside was swathed in this tassel topped grass.....

...... and the Natal bottlebrush Greyia sutherlandii growing near reception was in prolific and magnificent flower.

A wash away due to the floods has left only one access to Royal Natal and the Amphitheatre via Rugged Glen and in places the roadside was lined with Natal red top grass, which is more pink than red.

In one spot there were also patches of  a tiny helicrysum with attractive grey leaves that combined rather well with the pink, Bishop's Art Appreciation 101.

Back in Boksburg, Pete was kind enough to lend me a camera which enabled me to get a picture of Little black-nose who is still a little wild but is gradually taking over the house.  His 14 or so family and friends have all been trapped and rehomed but he evaded capture and now rules the roost.

 

The resident Karoo thrushes were busy rearing a very demanding chick and one of them took refuge in the tree outside my window for a well earned rest.

As the cost of diesel is off the chart, I am using the bike more and more as is has exceptional consumption and petrol is slightly cheaper.  Took a ride out to some ponds I found on a previous visit near Kliprivier and managed to get a rather a good shot of a Golden bishop, which looks like and overgrown bumblebee......

.......and the ubiquitous yellow-billed duck, common but pretty.

Just outside the front door of the cottage is this hibiscus which I thought could only be described as a blooming marvel.

Another day, another ride I ended up at Zoo Lake where swarms of little brown-veined white butterflies were on their annual migration and only just visible in this shot.

Fortunately a lot of them were picking up nutrients so I was able to get a close-up of one of them.

I took my camera into the agents to get them to certify that it was a write off so that I could claim on insurance.  Two days later they phoned and asked what was wrong with it!  Seems it rectified it's own problem so I suggested that they service it and check that everything was working and a couple of days later I was back in business.  Went out to Marievale to check and here are the results, one of my personal favourites a white-throated swallow........

........and it's mate with material to add to the nest inside the hide.

A three-banded plover fossicking in the mud............

.........while a squacco heron imperiously surveys the scene.............

............and a Levaillant's cisticola scolding me for encroaching on it's territory.

This southern masked weaver was still in eclipse plumage but that didn't deter him from preparing a new nest site

A rather elegant fulvous whistling duck was sunning itself on a bank.......

..............and one of the many long-tailed widows was begging to be immortalised.  Well the camera is fine but I'm still waiting for the binoculars to be repaired in Austria and hopefully there will be more content in the next edition.

Slam dunk

Returning from Itala and just outside Pongola, the black monkey thorns Senegalia burkei were in prolific bloom and very evident. 

A personal favourite, though not particularly beautiful, is the yellow-bellied greenbul and their nagging peh-peh-peh call is a constant reminder of their proximity.  As usual as soon as you get a camera out they show you exactly what they think of you and you end up with the classic vent view!

Though there is a fairly large herd at Bonamanzi they are rarely seen, this mother was giving me the evil eyeball and daring me to get closer to her calf

This is Sarcophyte sanguinea , something I've never come across before. It parasitizes the roots of acacia species and is sexually diverse with the female plants below..............

..............and the males showing these white anthers.  According to the great oracle Richard Boon, they smell of rotting flesh and are pollinated by flies.  I didn't get close enough to confirm.

This is the time of year when the weeping boer beans Schotia brachypetala are copiously coated in scarlet flowers which literally drip nectar, hence the weeping appellation.

Always sad to leave such a beautiful spot but cataract ops were calling so started heading back to Durban where my cousin Sue's husband Giles, who is an eminent ophthalmologist, had kindly agree to sort them out.  I stopped for what was meant to be a brief stay at Umlalazi Lagoon in Mtunzini.  There appear to be only two zebra left in the reserve and on a couple of mornings I awoke to their soft snuffling right outside my window.

A few mornings later I went out birding on the Honda and had a senior moment.  I had taken the long route to a likely finfoot spot and decided to come back along a footpath shortcut.  What I hadn't bargained on was the wash away at this spot.  So I'm approaching from the far side of this pond and I'm confronted with this minor obstacle.  Why not turn around I hear you say, well I wont say impossible but the section is raised and only a little over a metre wide so I figured that riding over the pipe was the best option - which would have be a doddle 30 years ago!  The Universe decided to teach the old fool that he is no longer bullet-proof.

As the front wheel crested the pipe the back wheel snagged on a rock and I needed legs about half a metre longer to reach anywhere.  Result, 208 kg of bike on top of me in the water with very rough chunks of concrete below and my left leg trapped.  The extraction process removed a lot of skin and caused much damage to knee, ankle and foot.  So what now?  There's no way I can lift it by myself and the nearest help is 3 km away.  My binoculars, spectacles and camera all took a swim and even though the camera was in the backpack it expired.  I eventually located the bins in a metre of water (thank heavens for Zwarovski nitrogen sealing) but my glasses are still there.  So I'm pouring blood and barely capable of walking but set off gamely (or gammy-ly).  Had only made a hundred metres when I heard a bakkie approaching and was overwhelmed to a see couple of rangers with six other people on the back.  They were extremely concerned and we soon had the Honda back on the road, I pressed the starter button and viola, simply unbelievable. Back at base I showered and tried to find the first aid kit, which, unbeknown to me, must have been taken when the Beast was burgled in the Cape.  A visit to the pharmacy provided what I required plus, mercifully, a pair of crutches on loan at no cost - love these small villages.  A number eye-watering applications of merthiolate soon produced a scab which obviated nightly dressings.......

.............but the swelling of ankle and foot made progress painfully slow.  The bike got away with a few small scratches as I provided an excellent cushion. After 10 days I was able to return the crutches and proceed to Karridene on the south coast just past Amanzimtoti.

Fortunately found a willing assistant to help load the bike but setting up camp was a two day affair,  While the massive fig provided shade it also was very generous with it's fruit so a constant rain went on day and night with bats and birds competing for who could provide the most copious quantities of crap.

Fortunately the fruit was used up after about 10 days and after a flurry of campers who call themselves the Penny Pinchers left, there were only 3 other vans in this massive camp site.

An obvious difference between this and my last visit is that the trains no longer run, which is a country-wide malaise caused by rampant vandalism and theft.  I was astounded to find out that even the dedicated railway from the coal fields to Richards Bay no longer operates; which accounts for the massive increase in trucks on a road system already under strain.

It is a great pity to witness the gradual return to a very third world country but there are still some very beautiful spots if you take the time to look.

Swartland revisited

Visiting the Cape Province is like arriving in a different country.  Most of the municipalities are actually efficiently run, the roads have no potholes and the street lights work. The Swartland around Riebeeck is not all under vines and has fields of winter wheat and canola, which at this time of year are ablaze with flowers.

 

Not content with choking the planet with plastic, the local farmers seem intent on covering large swathes with netting, which is made of.....!  It provides protection for the fruit apparently but really doesn't look great - why can't they make it green?

A couple of days after my arrival, the Kings set off on their travels but soon realised that they had left a number of things behind.  As they were overnighting at Rocherpan about 120 km away I offered to drive up and meet them with the now much extended list of forgotten items.  Don offered to show me around the currently dry pan which nevertheless turned up some interesting goodies such as this oddity.  Meet Hyobanche sanguinea a root parasite with scale-like leaves and showy tubular flowers that are about 75 mm long. (Thanks to Richard Boon for the identification.)

Always good to see tortoises that haven't been squished!

Kilometers of - I would like to say pristine but plastic is everywhere these days - beach.....

,,,,,,,,and a member of the lark family, which always cause uncertainty, but I'm fairly sure this is a Karoo lark.

When I arrived back at the house, the sun was setting behind the Swartberg but it didn't come to much.  There are a lot of table grapes grown in the area so it too is becoming smothered in plastic.

These two provided a lot of comical entertainment with Beau hurtling after Storm then both of them having mock battles.

Next morning the mountain  decided to compete with Cape Town's famous landmark.

In what seemed to be no time at all the Kings returned and I decided to spend a few nights near Simonstown to enable fairly easy access to the Cape Point Nature Reserve where I hoped to find an elusive little bird called a Hottentot buttonquail.  I'd found a very comfortable and reasonable self-catering flatlet in Glencairn Heights and chose the scenic Boyles Drive to get there. There are several places where you may park, one of which overlooks Muizenberg and False Bay.

Way out in the middle of the bay is the little pile of rock called Seal Island which I remember visiting by fishing boat while on holiday at a hotel called Rhodesia by the Sea when I was all of nine years old.  Apart from the seals the only other memorable thing was the retch-inducing smell when we got downwind.  

Further round the bay towards Strandfontein, the municipality is busy building a second Table Mountain out of trash!

On a second visit the small waves, that make Muizenberg beach and ideal spot for beginners, were being extensively utilized.

Across the bay Simonstown is rapidly scaling the mountain,

Driving out to Cape Point, the cloud cover was penetrated by a single shaft of sunlight........

,,,,,,,but in the reserve the skies were clear and illuminated this naturally formed a rock croc..

I heard the distinctive call and reply of southern bou bous and then found them sitting together serenading.  Very unusual and can only think that they were defending their territory.  The female on the left has a slight pinkish wash on the breast

'

The coastline at Buffels Baai is particularly rugged and the water is filled with kelp forests.

A Cape sugarbird was feeding on proteas but unfortunately the light didn't quite do it justice.

Tucked away lower down was this striking Cape tulip, which is probably Morea flaccida, but this is fynbos which means there could another half dozen similar species!

While common sense insists otherwise, I still think that the water on the Atlantic side is a different colour.....it looks as cold as it is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,which doesn't faze the Cape fur seals at all.

A visit to the peninsular is not complete without a drive along Chapman's Peak road with it's amazing vistas such as here looking over Long Beach towards Kommetjie. 

Next to the road this odd brown salvia S. africana-lutea.....

........and the section of road cut out of the cliff - a semi-tunnel!

Next thing I was back in Boksburg for a few nights and decided to split my journey to Bonamanzi where the Beast was stored.  It's been at least 20 years since Jo and I were last at the jewel in KZN Wildlife's crown, Itala Nature Reserve. While the chalet I was in was neat and well maintained on the inside...... 

.....the same could not be said for the thatch, as was the case with most of the roofs.  Some of them are in such poor condition they must be uninhabitable.

Didn't have time to see much else of the reserve but camp's spectacular setting at the base of Ntshondwe Mountain and the breakfast included in the rate made up for the shortcomings.