Midlands Break

February travels took us to the Midlands where we occasionally spend a weekend tucked in the Rosetta cottage overlooking a lake with freight trains often moving noisily past. Fridays journey was pleasant with a very nice treat as we entered Rosetta, there in a field stood 29 white storks with more I suspect coming in to roost for the night. It was a really chilled out evening enjoying the peace & tranquillity of this magical place putting our minds & bodies to rest nice & early.

The birds started their early morning chorus shouting for food & 5am is quite early to be up when everything around you is cold but alas I was awake with coffee & rusks to keep me happy. As we waited for the birds to pull into to their morning feast, I was armed with a little Kodak 8.2MP point & shoot camera (yip I forgot the memory card for the better camera at home & the other memory card didn't want to work). This did not stop us from getting some good shots throughout the whole weekend & worked out just fine being very compact & all.

We left mid-morning to meet friends at Berg Trails where we went Horse riding on Appaloosa horses cowboy style in the tree forests in the mountains. This was our 2nd time riding here & it has always been exciting with the guides. I felt more confident on the horses this time so I galloped much better my horse was not so ignorant either. Along our trail we came across a pair of Grey Duiker at their nest, the elusive Side Striped Jackal & heard the Black Cuckoo. After our journey, a cold black label was enjoyed at their bar while we chatted away.

Once back at the cottage, we went out onto the garden & relaxed as the Rosetta atmosphere just gets us into that comfy dozy feeling almost putting me to sleep. Eventually we get up & I get a fire started so we can have a lekker braai before we head out into the Nottingham Hotel Pub "Night club" to watch the really tough South African quarter final. The girls get to the dance floor & start busting out their moves, it did not take long for 1 psycho chick to start her little tantrum threats but alas my fiance fought back & killed her with kindness! That shut her up for the evening & all the locals even reckon she's coco loco, so we all had a chuckle & a damn good time.

Sunday we packed up & took a sunday drive down to Howick where we spent a few hours at the Karkloof Conservation Center checking out the birds before we came back to city life. Another fantastic weekend which just makes me ampt for more & more.

Amatikulu Nature Reserve

13th Jan 4:30am sunday morning had us getting ready for a trip up to Amatikulu Nature Reserve 100km outside of Durban,which the parentals had planned so we tagged along & a very lovely day it ended up being.

Upon arrival, the staff seem very helpful, they give us a map of all the routes & walking trails. As we enter we take the 4x4 route first with us planning to be at the picnic area by lunch, cruising not too far & Yellow-Throated Longclaws are spotted which seem to be the common bird around here. Further along we stumble across a section of the road which the rain had damaged so it was time to test out the 4x4. It was hair raising at first but with some guidance & a shovel in hand, we bulit up our road & made it through with ease. The bigger problem was getting up this on the way back, we had to rebuild a section of it & level out some parts but this sand was really soft & makes everything just that much more difficult. After a few hair raising attempts & near rolls, the ballie guides the bakkie through with a sign of relief.

Back at the reception, we tell them about the road but they already knew all this, its really disgusting that the staff don't inform visitors of events that have happened at this reserve, nor do they inform visitors that the whale watching tower access is by foot but on the map it shows a 4x4 road, they even told us where to go by car, so we drove around looking for a road that does not exist!

At the pan we stopped for some coffee, had a walk around, found some porcupine quills, got fooled by a stupid stick which looked like a snake hidden in the grass just waiting to attack. In the pan were loads of African Jacanas flying around chasing eachother, calling & I also spotted one building a nest next to the waters edge which I have never seen before. Also around were White faced Whistlers, Spur-Winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Little Grebes, Grey Heron, Common Moorhen, Black Crake, the enchanting White-Fronted Bee-Eaters & a few more.

Zebra & Giraffe were on the playlist literally with the birds being the backround beat, they looked so goofy with one ear up & one ear down & their faces just being so comical looking. The animals didnt seem too bothered by our presence & slowly moved off as we approached them, giving us some photo opportunities. For a small Reserve, they sure have alot of giraffe, zebra & few buck of which we managed to catch a glimpse of before it disappeared into the bushes.

We reach our picnic area,started a braai, setup the lunch table & relaxed by the siff river, yip it was siff, from all the rain during the week. There are 2 young guys who do canoe hire & the one young man is "Junior", he's a bird guide for reserves around this area & knows his stuff. We were fortunate for him to voluntarily join us on our trail walk & lucky for us that he did, he called in a Green Malkoha (Green Coucal) which was a first spot for us & guided us through some overgrown bushes that made the path disappear,clearing some spider webs & I had the unfortunate grace of walking into a Golden Orb Spider but luckily managed to let it loose onto a tree (these spiders are harmless but do give a nasty bite).

Throughout the day we saw 45 species of birds & heard 3 of which we never saw including the very elusive Narina Trogon, even after trying to call it in.
Thanks to the parentals for the lovely trip & many more to come.