Cape Town / Garden route / Isimangaliso (St Lucia) 18 Feb/4 March 2017 (1 Viewer)

Having seen the price of Tswalu at Kalahari we have changed our itinerary and are now flying on to St Lucia wetlands for the last 3 nights instead(saving £2000 each !!). Unfortunately I can't change the title of the previous thread hence this new one.

Our agents have booked us into Amakhala (nr Port Elizabeth) at the end of the garden route and then Makakatana Bay Lodge at St Lucia. Unfortunately end of Feb looks like it might be too late to see the turtles ?

Are there better choices for wildlife and birds in these 2 areas than the 2 above ?? I have the Sth Sfrican Birdfinder book but the book is almost too good.....there are so many sites and all sound so good....

thanks
Tony

Hi Tony. Turtle tours run between November and March, so you would still be able to go on one. However as only two vehicles per night are permitted on the beach, they are very heavily booked so i would book fast if you want to do this. There is no guarantee by any of the tours that you will indeed see turtles but it is a great experience and as they mostly leave from St Lucia and drive through the Isimangaliso Wetland Park you get a night drive thrown in and might even see leopard amongst other game/night birds.

St Lucia is an excellent area for birds, see here:

http://www.birdlife.org.za/component/k2/item/546-sa128-isimangaliso-wetland-park

It might be worth hiring a bird guide for the day unless you have some knowledge of the area.
You can also drive from here to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi, another good birding area and big five game reserve, which is about 55km away.

Good luck!

That's brilliant. Thanks Sal.

Tony

Can anyone recommend a website where it's possible to download some SA birdsongs to learn before I go? Esp the turacos, rockjumper, woodpeckers etc?

Thanks
Tony.

Sasol ebirds has 630 species songs. Is that my only real option ?

Thanks
Tony

Tony Knight said:

Can anyone recommend a website where it's possible to download some SA birdsongs to learn before I go? Esp the turacos, rockjumper, woodpeckers etc?

Thanks
Tony.

Click to expand...

on xeno canto you can just type in the name of what you want to hear, and listen to/record it. The SA turacos sound pretty much the same, once you've heard it once you'll know straight away you've got one nearby :t:

We did a long independent SA trip a few years back, the four linked posts below cover what we did in and around St Lucia area near the end of the trip. Might be some useful stuff in there, 2nd link is specifically around St Lucia.

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2678446&postcount=138
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2679967&postcount=139
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2682341&postcount=148
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2688367&postcount=150

Larry Sweetland said:

on xeno canto you can just type in the name of what you want to hear, and listen to/record it. The SA turacos sound pretty much the same, once you've heard it once you'll know straight away you've got one nearby :t:

We did a long independent SA trip a few years back, the four linked posts below cover what we did in and around St Lucia area near the end of the trip. Might be some useful stuff in there, 2nd link is specifically around St Lucia.

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2678446&postcount=138
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2679967&postcount=139
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2682341&postcount=148
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2688367&postcount=150

Click to expand...

Thanks Larry. I'll take a look when the pc is fired up and work out how to get onto pc, into iTunes and then onto my phone. Thanks for the links too. We will spend 2 days at St Lucia on the water and on the reserve either side and then a day up the road at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi.

Thanks
Tony