South Africa 2013 - Pt 5

De Hoop NR: What a fantastic location. If we had our time again we would have spent three days here, as it happened we had barely 24hrs. We used it as a midway point on our return journey from Knysna to Cape Town..... safe to say we will return one day.

It is regarded as a creditable place to spend time Whale Watching..... I can concur. We arrived late afternoon and were greeted by two fine species of antelope, firstly the Common Eland (I didn't know at the time but this would be my last sighting of the species during the three week stay in SA) and the wonderful Bontebok.

Common Eland

 

 

Bontebok



We checked into out superb Rondavels overlooking the estuary.

 

bfb...... taking in the sight

It was late afternoon so we headed straight to Koppie Allen as a number of Southern Right Whales had been seen earlier in the day. It was 30 minutes away but the dirt tracks didn't hold us back we arrived with gorgeous sunlight and were met by beautiful white sand dunes from where we witnessed 11 Southern Rights Whales.

Koppie Allen

 

I can think of worse places to be watching Whales from..... Matt, Ryan & Liz watching Southern Right Whales from the white Sand Dunes at Koppie Allen

Southern Right Whales

 

 

We could have stayed for hours but light would soon fade..... we spent a wonderful 90 minutes in the company of these gigantic creatures, certainly one of the trip highlights and something that we will do again soon. Back at the car park we had some stunning species of bird and mammal.



Four striped Grass-mouse

 

 

Speckled Mousebird

 

 

Cape Sugarbird

 

 

Cape Bulbul

 

 

Cape Bunting

 

 

Back at De Hoop camp and just before the sun dropped out of sight, a stroll around the grounds near to our rondaval brought this nice surprise, and only 30 yards away

 

Spotted Eagle-Owl

 

 

 

 and our other neighbours that lived underneath the wall of our patio -

a family group of  Rock Dassie

 



All the following bird species were seen within a 300 yrd walk of our patio!

Cape spurfowl

 

 

Southern Boubou

 

 

Ostrich

 

looking into the estuary were good flocks of Great White Pelican

 

 

 

 

and Greater Flamingos

 

Knysna Woodpecker

not sure if this was the luckiest sighting I had, but I had missed it a day earlier while in Harkerville forest, so to catch up with it here was a huge surprise.... and right outside the patio overlooking the estuary.... early morning light, the sun was still behind the mountains but still just fantastic!

 

 

Fiscal Flycatcher

 

 

 

 

Common Fiscal (Shrike)

 

 

Cape Weaver

 

 

African Spoonbill

 

 

Caspian Tern

 

Bockmakarie

brilliant bird, I could have watched this fella for ages

 

More Speckled Mousebirds

Bar Throated Apalis

 

Crowned Lapwing

 

 

Capped Wheatear

 

 

other species included, African Black Duck, Black Crowned Night-Heron, Red Knobbed Coot, Red Capped Lark, Familiar Chat, Grey Backed Cisticola, Sombre Greenbul, Brown Banded Martin, Little Swift, Eurasion Golden Oriole, African Stonechat, Laughing Dove, Cape Crow.......

 and just as were leaving we added these two species

 

Yellow Mongoose

 

 

 

 

Leopard Tortoise

 

 

 

Its incredible to think that this whole post is dedicated to just this one location and in less than a 24hr stay - next stop Cape Town and a flight to Kruger