Free day Durban, South Africa (1 Viewer)

I'm travelling on business to S Africa in June this year and have a free day to go birding / mini safari whilst in Durban.

I'd appreciate it if anyone has any information that may help.

Thanks

For peace of mind, particularly if you intend carting expensive optics around the place, I would contact Birdlife South Africa and get a guide for the day - I went to Shongweni Resources Reserve with a chap called Terry er ... something (sorry, it was a while back), and it was an excellent day out.

M

Maybe not what you were thinking about, but June is an brilliant time to do a pelagic in the waters off South Africa. Though Cape Town is the main place, they do run from Durban. Check the CapeBirding website, an amazing resource anyhow.

If you can hire a car to transport yourself, you could have a wonderful birding day at Amatikulu Nature Reserve, on the coast north of Durban. I hired a local guide through the the folks who organize the Zululand Birding Route (tel 0832255960). See their website for details about their program for training local guides. We hired their guides for three different parks and were never disappointed -- very affordable, professional, and a nice inter-personal experience. At Amatikulu, our guide Sbu (one of the most experienced of the guides the organization has trained) knew where to find well-hidden Swamp Nightjars, and he was very glad to teach me ways of distinguishing the calls of some of the more common birds that I would spot later when I was trying to bird without a guide. As it was my first visit to South Africa and about the fifth day of the whole trip, his efforts to teach me about Zululand birding were the perfect introduction. You'll find the website of Zululand Birding Route very helpful, too. www.zbr.co.za