West Coast National Park

Urgent update - we forgot to mention we saw a giraffe yesterday. It was on a private game reserve so we are not sure if it really counts.

Our new accommodation has a new take on a stable door.

Just a central opening with bars. It seemed a bit like a prison cell door. We half wondered if breakfast was going to be served through the slots!

We were due to have a lie in this morning as breakfast was at half seven to leave for today's outing at half eight. Last night we realised that despite checking the hotel room carefully before we left the last accommodation, we had left both the converter plug and iPhone charger behind - disaster.

There's one other person with a suitable charger we can borrow (we still have the cable), plus the South African guide offered us a power pack to borrow.  Not ideal but might work.  We can only hope! 

As the other phones were charging we used the spare one for the morning alarm, and as you may have guessed, unknown to us, we used the iPhone that had not automatically re-set for the time zone for our morning alarm.  Thinking we had oodles of time, we were just about to go for a stroll around the property when there was a knock on the door. Were we coming for breakfast as it was five to eight? After an initial panic it all worked out OK in the end as we managed to have our breakfast and get away at the allotted time - phew!  But not a good impression to give our new travelling companions perhaps.

There was a Malachite Sunbird nesting in the quadrangle of the B&B

We started the official day's tour by visiting the Seeburg Viewing Site. 

Eric's doing some research about our location.

 

 This was a good place for seeing the landscape
 

and some of the famous South African flora.

and some of the birds;

A Bokmakierie - a pretty bird with a melodious song.

 
 Prinia
 

 Sunbird


Eric's learning a lot today. Looking out over the lagoon.

 

The next stop is at the Postburg Section. This is a privately owned part of the reserve run in conjunction with the other part of the National Park, but is only open to visit during the 'flower season' of August and September. Although it has been very dry here for a few months, which is not promising for a good floral showing, conveniently the rain we had as we arrived in South Africa has brought a riot of colour out over vast areas of the Velt. 

Some random stops for views give an idea of how spectacular the display is

 

 

 

Next scheduled stop is at this place

 

As you obviously realised it is pronounced - Oatcake - or at least that's what Eric heard it as. 

This time the lookout is back over the lagoon towards Langebaan where we were staying. 

 

 Panoramic view

Travel on next to the Atlantic coast side for our lunch stop. 

It is a sunny Sunday and there are lots of people come to see the flowers. After having our fill of the floral carpets, we had lunch at the beach. Climbing to the top of a limestone bluff helped us work up an appetite. 

Cor, I needed a sit down after all that exertion.
 

Views from here were good too, and we saw some Cape Fur Seals and Penquin in the sea,
 

plus some different flowers on the rock. First one is a close up of the centre of a flower.
  

 
 Interesting insect here - some form of Ladybird we think.

 Of course, on the way the different destinations we stopped off at various points along the way if one of the guides spotted anything interesting. Luckily our driver is very understanding of all these stops and starts. Well for the moment anyway.

Some more flower meadows

 
 It almost looked like it had been snowing here.



 We also managed to see the 'highly sought after' Black Harrier.  

 

Plus Eland, Springbok, Bontibok, Mongoose and...Mountain Zebra

Springbok

 

Mountain Zebra in the colourful landscape

 

 Following on from this we returned inland, to a bird hide overlooking a waterhole. 

That's a bit of a mouthful

View from the hide.

There were some Red Knobbed Coot,

Moorhen, Little Grebe, and Kingfisher.
 

Plus some Brimstone Canary, Cape Bunting and Cape Weaver





 

and an Ostrich that looked like it was swallowing a tennis ball each time it lifted it's head up from grazing. It was incredible to see Ostrich running, they seem to go very fast indeed, and it looks very comical. 

 

Another two hides to visit before we head back to the B&B.

First the Geelbecki Hide.

View of wetland from the walkway

 

Along the boardwalk to the hide we saw this - should be able to remember the identity but have seen so many new things today that the memory won't take anymore for the moment - to be checked later against original photo!

Firstly from the back

 

then the front.


as well as a Blacksmith's Lapwing.


This was also a weird digi-scoping shot of something unidentifiable from the photo

From the hide we had good views of Flamingo, Plover, Avocet, Godwit and Ruff on the edges of the lagoon
 

 

There was also a Plover chick with its mother seen from the back of the hide.

Then it's on to the Seeburg Hide.

 

A longish boardwalk through some interesting vegetation.

Looks like an interesting bush...

worth a close-up.

From the hide - More Flamingos, both Lesser and Greater, with some African Oystercatcher and Gulls in the foreground;


Shoveler Duck,
 

White-fronted Plover,
 

Cape Teal (with a flotilla of baby ones)

and quite possibly a Roseate Tern, but more likely to be a Common Tern. Have to add some excitement by thinking it's the rarer one at first.

Two slightly different views of the Tern.  It was a long way away.

Back to the B&B for a 'check sightings for the day' meeting before heading in to town for dinner. Pizza for one and Chicken cordon bleu for the other. Then write up the blog as best we can and await tomorrow's adventure (a bit of birding, a bit of botany, and a lot of travelling to our next destination, which is about 300km away).

Spotted in the front garden just as we arrived back from dinner was this cute little Steenbok.

There may now be a few days pause in the blog entries as our next B&B has no Internet.