With a delay of 16 months I’m now presenting my trip report to Western Cape in South Africa.
As usual, this was a family trip with my wife and 2 teenage kids. We visited 7 locations in 12 days from the 24th of April until the 5th of May 2016 and we avoided long driving stretches. We visited several Nature Reserves both state and privately owned but we also spotted wildlife in parks and gardens.
South Africa was a great experience in many respects; the people, the landscapes, animals but also the food was great. The landscape was quite dry and the nights were getting cold but the weather was fine during the day. We managed to find a few reptile species but I had hoped for more snakes and at least one Leopard-tortoise. As for the amphibians, it was simply too dry and therefore I decided not to waste too much time with night searches.
We managed to find some great specimens and outside the scope of this site, we saw 30 species of mammals and 137 of birds most of wich I was able photograph.
The Trip started in Cape Town with a quick visit to the Cape of Good Hope where we lost a lot of time because it was Sunday and everyone was out on the road.
We stayed a few hours in Hermanus where we visited the Fernkloof Nature Reserve and headed East to The Hoop Nature Reserve. This is a great open area where we hiked by the coast and in the dunes.
After the Hoop Nature Reserve, we went to the Cape folding hills arround swellendam and Montagu. We hiked on those hills but also in the dry area known as Little Karoo.
The last few days were spent arround the Cederberg to the East of Clanwilliam and at the coast in the area of Doringbaai and Strandfontein. There I saw the only DOR snake of the entire trip, a (psammophis leightoni) from wich I do not present a picture.
I hope I’ll hike the same paths and a few new ones in the near future, to once again try to find the very interesting species that roam the great landscapes of South Africa.
Miguel.