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Joburg - Cape Town - Joburg 11th Nov to 25th Nov 2014 (1 Viewer)

Paul Higson

Well-known member
Morning,

Three of us will be birding in Sth Africa 11th to 25th November this year. Flying in and out of Johannesburg and doing a round trip to Cape Town for a pelagic.

Any hints, tips, sites, info etc etc gratefully recieved.

1st question - What would be the best road atlas to buy in advance ??
 
Morning,

Three of us will be birding in Sth Africa 11th to 25th November this year. Flying in and out of Johannesburg and doing a round trip to Cape Town for a pelagic.

Any hints, tips, sites, info etc etc gratefully recieved.

1st question - What would be the best road atlas to buy in advance ??

Hi Paul,

With luck I'll be there for the first two weeks in Nov. So I'm interested in any replies here.
Which pelagic are you thinking of?
If I do get there I could give you updates before you start...are you doing Kruger at all?

H
 
Morning,

Three of us will be birding in Sth Africa 11th to 25th November this year. Flying in and out of Johannesburg and doing a round trip to Cape Town for a pelagic.

Any hints, tips, sites, info etc etc gratefully recieved.

1st question - What would be the best road atlas to buy in advance ??

To maximise time, I'd split the trip into two, a week in Kruger and towards the Kwazulu coast, then fly down to the Cape Town area for a week. It is a very big country and planning a round-trip drive with birding on route would necessarily mean skipping very much.

I've spent about two years birding in southern Africa and it is truly superb, you really can't go wrong ..if you settle on an approximate route/idea of what interests you, I'll be happy to add further hints (as I am sure will others).
 
Which pelagic are you thinking of?

Though other choices do occasionally exist, you really only want to consider those from Cape Town - regardless of season, you are virtually guaranteed an amazing experience. Of the two operators in Cape Town, I think both are basically first-class and probably your choice of which will be dictated by availability of a pelagic on dates that fit into your schedule.
 
Paul - we did the trip a few years ago in June to coincide with the Great White season. We used Cape Town Pelagics and had an awesome trip but I know they're both good. We stayed in Simons Town and took trips to the Karoo and Eastern Grasslands. Rooeils is a must for Cape Rockjumper. The Cape peninsula is well worth a days birding as well but watch the thieving baboons!

Think we used one of the guides with maps & locations and got an atlas over there. We flew into Cape Town, hired a car & drove to our base in Simons Town.
 
Many thanks for the replies so far - looking forward to more !!

Committed to the Joburg-Cape Town-Joburg dash, saving Kruger etc for another trip - so many places, so little time . . .

We are with Cape Town Pelagics 15/16th November and staying in Simonstown 14-16th, and have booked a trip to the Sani Pass on the 23rd.

So the plan is - arrive J. late 11th, set off to Cape Town and over night Kimberley area 12th, overnight Beaufort West area 13th, drive to C.T. 14th. pelagic/bird Cape Town area 15/16th depart North to Brandvlei area 17th then east to Sani for the 23rd. ( This bit of trip not planned yet ). After Sani, head back to J. for a late evening flight on the 25th via Rorkes Drift ( I love that film !!!!).

Mammal sites would be grand as well - need to see Meerkat . . .

Just discovered there is a place between Joburg and Kimberley called Orkney, I feel a photo opportunity coming on . .
 
Mammal sites would be grand as well - need to see Meerkat . . . .

The Kgalagadi is by far the best place for Meerkats, and is a stunning area, but that really would be one heck of a detour :) A closer opportunity is Wakkerstroom (you can pass this general area on route from Sani to Joburg) - a grassland area famous for rare larks, Blue Cranes and select korhaans, Meerkats are also reasonably easy.
 
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Mammal sites would be grand as well - need to see Meerkat . . .

.

What mammals are you after? If you're staying in Kimberley for a night I recommend you book your accommodation at Marrick Safari. I know Meerkats occur on the property although I've never looked for them (I've seen plenty in the Kalahari). http://marricksafari.com/

A night drive at Marrick can be fantastic for small/medium nocturnal mammals which can be very difficult to see elsewhere. I've seen Aardvarks, Aardwolf, Black-footed Cat, Caracal, Wildcat, Cape Porcupine and many other creatures while staying there. There's also plenty of introduced game including Giraffe and Gemsbok.

More details can be found in my trip report

http://mammalwatching.com/Afrotropical/other reports/MR South Africa 2012.docx
 
Hi Paul,

Thats a lot of driving you will be doing between the 11th and 17th. Although the areas you are going to are good for a variety of species, its not the kind of trip you would do for a maximum amount of species. You should however get many endemics ticked off, which may be more important to you than numbers.
In Beaufort West you have to pay the Karoo National Park a visit. Great birding and of course good wildlife too. Lions were introduced to the park a few years ago, so you may even be lucky and see these. If you have the time then I would highly recommend Karoo Birding (Jaapie Classen) to show you around. He knows all the good spots for the various species, and will inevitably be able to give you good information for places like Brandvlei as well. http://karoobirdingsafaris.weebly.com/
Has your trip up Sani Pass already been booked? Malcolm Gemmell from Button Birding would be the person to go with here. http://www.buttonbirding.com/
Pity you dont have time for the Kruger Park, but it may be best to do a dedicated trip out to do the Kruger and other other eastern and north-eastern parts of South Africa.
Happy to help with more info if you have specific questions.
 
Bush/Safariranger,

Thanks for this - may have to quell the desire to do everything in one go . . . .

Saving kruger and the NE for another day
 
I will second the recommendation for Karoo NP. It's a pretty small park but has some nice mammals and birds. Black Rhino, Lion and Brown Hyena have been recently reintroduced (and are relatively difficult to find in short time) but Mountain Zebra, Kudu, Klipspringer etc should be easy enough.

I've done a couple of trips to SA and driven many miles both times. I much prefer driving to internal flights, especially when the roads are good with plenty of wildlife to see en route.
 
Hi, Paul. I was very impressed with the Southern African Birdfinder book when I was birding out there. Do you have it? A bit out of date now and I found it slightly optimistic on what you can see per site but generally, it was indispensable. Comes with a map showing over 300 sites so brilliant for route planning; and has a section on how to see the region's top 150 birds or something like that.

Birding Gauteng is also packed with gen but possibly not so useful on your whirlwind trip...

Are you after an efficient geographic clean up or do you want to dip into a few of the most awesome sites? If the latter, I agree with previous posts, don't miss out the Sani Pass, Wakkerstroom and the Karoo NP & surrounds. West Coast NP is stunning and cage diving with GWSs is superb despite the non-birding tourists (Gansbaai one option).

Cheers,
Andy.
 
Hi Paul

If you want to see endemics around the Karoo, then you must definitely book a day's outing with Japie Claasen - one of the true gentlemen of the birding world (although you may find his Afrikaans accent a little difficult. He will go out of his way to show you everything in the area.
I also agree with the recommendation of Button Birding for Sani Pass.

Good luck with your planning.

Cheers
Jenny
 
Wow, Paul, that's quite an itinerary...! You haven't really left too much time for birding the Cape Town area. Ideally, you would need a day for the pelagic, a day for birding the Peninsula's various sites, a day for the west coast and a day for doing the Hottentots Holland and Overberg loop. Even then, you haven't covered all the major sites and will be missing things like Protea Canary (a Cape endemic). Ideally, you would also need more time in the Karoo region than just the short stop off you have allowed.

As a suggestion to you, I would possibly omit the Namaqualand/Bushmanland loop up to Brandvlei from this trip. That is a large area to cover with a handful of target species (Red Lark, Sclater's Lark, Stark's Lark, Barlow's Lark, Burchell's Courser, etc) and possibly concentrate spending more time in the Karoo, either around Beaufort West or in the Tanqua karoo north of Ceres (do-able in a long day from Cape Town).

The other days you save from that part of the trip could be put to good use in Kwazulu Natal close to Sani Pass where there are plenty of other targets to get in the grasslands and forests close by e.g. Cape Parrot, Black-rumped Buttonquail, Buff-spotted Flufftail, etc.

Another good site for Meerkats at Kimberley is Benfontein Game Reserve, but they are literally all over and you could encounter them anywhere along your route until you reach the Karoo NP. South of there towards Cape Town, they become increasingly scarcer.

Whatever the case, you will have lots of fun and get to see plenty. November is a good time to be visiting us and you should get to see lots of whales on the pelagic trip (mostly Southern Rights, but probably also Humpbacks and Bryde's and perhaps even some dolphins) and some of the last of the winter visitors like Pintado Petrels should still be around as well before heading back south.
 
Thanks again for the replies - much appreciated.

Our plans are changing daily and I think we are going to have to be a little bit less optimistic about what we can fit in this time around - a good reason to return . . .
 
Thanks again for all the help/advice - we are slowly getting there - I think.

Once the weekend of the Pelagic/local Cape Town birding is over, we plan to head up to West Coast National Park, Clanwilliam, Skitteryloof/P2250. The dilemma is what to do next.

Do we spend a long day driving in order to spend time in Kwazulu Natal before our Sani Pass trip ?, or travel up towards Sani via the South Coast/N2 in a more leisurely fashion ?
 
Hmmm, car hire one way Joburg to Cape Town, then one way Durban to Joburg same as return Joburg to Joburg . . .????

Flight Cape Town to Durban £32 . . .

Think the plans are changing . . . :t:
 
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