This location was a little tough for me as you know by now I have a limited "foot" capacity for the day and here much of that capacity was spend walking back and forth to the restaurant. In addition my cottage had a very weird feature that about 6 inches in from the door, there was a large step @15 inches into the cottage -- very odd. I intended to take a photo but managed to forget. Also I had to grab the door before I stepped up, so it was just a real logistical nightmare for me. In addition, the key was very difficult to use -- unlike door keys in the US -- door keys in the South Africa places are like old fashioned skeleton key. I've never used them before and they lots of "feel" adjustment and even then they are no particularly reliable. There was no working lights outside of the cottage, even so I'm not sure it would have helped. To relock the door I had to move over a chair because the 15" step created a very difficult angle to lock the door while standing.
If you can't picture the keys -- this is what they look like...
I guess I should mention that there are BIG signs all over the cottage (it had two bedrooms & full eat in kitchen) that read - LOCK all doors and windows to keep out the BABOONS! So I wasn't about to leave them unlocked.
If that were not enough when I returned to my room last night there was a fairly significant black spider on my bedroom carpet. YIKES and African Spider???? I have to admit I was so freaked out I just squished instead of trying to pick it up and take it outside -- how could I take it outside with the routine it takes to open the door... I still feel bad about that.
We woke up early in De Hoop (or as some people pronounce it De Whoop) and started our birding day. It was interesting because we were seeing not only birds but mammals too and we were living amongst them. At this point we were resigned to have a "disaster" every day of the tour and today's was Aussie Dave couldn't find his key. As disaster's go, its not so bad.
We returned to De Hoop for the night, but this was the day's route.
In the early spot (just a short drive) was focused on seeing Larks -- much of our time in the area was seeing Larks -- a group I grew very fond of that we rarely see in the us. The other group we saw a lot of were Cisticola -- which I pronounced sis-ti-cola -- makes sense right? Well Vince the bird guide pronounces it sista-killa. Had a lot of these issues in South Africa where they pronounce words in ways that are unintuitive to me (and I think most Americans). I still struggle with sista-killa.
Here are some Larks & Cisticolas we saw that day:
Large Billed Lark
Cape Lark
Red-headed Cisticola
We returned to the Reserve and birded the Campground before going to breakfast. Looking for Woodpeckers (no luck) and Tchgras -- we found one. Lots of new birds and interesting birds for me.
Greater Striped Swallow
Still Fuzzy but another Denham's Bustard
Crowned Lapwing
Cape Bulbul
Bontebok
Mountain Zebra (Photo credit: Helen Mako)
Bokmakierie
Blue Crane
Ostrich Chicks
Bar-throated Apalis
Black Kite
Yellow Canary
African Pipit
White-throated Canary
Three-banded Plover
My compatriots
Water Thick-knee
Southern Tchagra
Southern Boubou
Pin-tailed Whydah
Just a few of the Ostrich
After breakfast we went to a few nature reserves and visited the Cape Griffon (Vulture) Sanctuary but it was fairly late in the day and we only saw a few flying -- there were none at the Vulture "Restaurant" (A place where local farmers drop carcasses for them to eat) even though there were lots of fresh carcasses there.
Some of what we saw
Speckled Mousebird
Grey Go-away Bird
Karoo Prinia
Capped Wheatear
Cape Bunting
Angulate Tortoise
My compatriots
Southern Fiscal
The view...
Cape Griffon
I ended the day (some folks went on a night walk that turned out to be quiet) at Koppie Allen which means a small hill or hillock -- it was NOT small. There was a nice spot at the top of the path waaaayyyy down to the beach that was a lovely spot to sit. It was windy (surprise!) and you can often see whales from there (I did not). It was also my only look at the Indian Ocean.
This was taken from my spot, and all the surrounding "hills" are actually Sand Dunes
My compatriots as they descended
Long-tailed (Reed) Cormorant
Kelp Gull
Caspian Tern
American Dave & Helen at the beach - in down coats! (Photo Credit Helen Mako)
Koppie Alleen
Return to a De Hoop Sunset (Ostrich included) - Photo credit Helen Mako
When I returned to my cottage, it was unlocked -- so when I went in I had to do a sweep for Baboons and I could never lock the door again. I slept that night in fear of a Baboon invasion, but was grateful there was no spider on the floor and I put my walking poles in front of the door so at least I would hear them. Which brings me back to the keys -- I guess that is not a big priority because the maid told me that was a tough room. Of course there is no phone in the room and I wasn't about to walk another 1/2 mile round trip to resolve it. I did report it when I checked out -- my guess is it still is not fixed.
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