NaBloPoMo

Oh what bliss to wake up to a brilliant blue skies and sunshine this morning.  The rain is desperately needed in the Western Cape and it was great to hear it during the night, but when camping, one is delighted to have some good weather.

What a pleasure to sit out, listen to the early morning chorus of birdsong and watch the activity on the river while sipping our first cuppa of the day.

A gorgeous morning

A group of young, energetic, American holidaymakers canoeing down the Touw  River

A noisy Egyptian Goose greeted us hoping for a tidbit

My wonderful hubby cooked his special scrambled eggs which includes cheese, mushrooms, bacon, banana and baby tomatoes and somehow it tasted extra delicious as it was eaten alfresco.

Gourmet Breakfast at Ebb & Flow

After breakfast we did a marathon walk along the Pied Kingfisher Trail.  It was 11ish and already quite hot.  It’s beautiful walk not only for the birdlife but also the flora.

We also found a tortoise and a dung beetle in the path.

Dung beetles keep the veld clean as they eat the faeces of herbivores which consists largely of undigested plant matter .

Some dung beetles roll the dung into balls and move it to their nests but others stay near the dung and feed from it there. The dung is also fed to the babies and this is why she lays her eggs in the dung.  It sounds disgusting to us but not to a dung beetle!

Although the trail is called the pied kingfisher trail we did not see one.  However, we saw a few other birds.

A Karoo Prinia

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Yellow bishop

Reed Cormorant catching some rays

On the last leg of our walk we met a German couple and as we were chatting a little Malachite Kingfisher appeared and we watched it catch insects in the water collected in the gutter on the side of the road.

Although we didn’t get the pied we were delighted to find a Malachite Kingfisher

All morning in camp I’d heard the Black-headed oriole but it insisted in hiding in the foliage.  But this afternoon he obliged and posed beautifully for me.

Earl’s feet were hurting after our long walk and he blamed his heavy shoes. We decided to go to George to find a softer pair.  After that we went to Victoria Bay and walked along the promenade.

These rocks bore plaques of remembrance possibly for people who love Victoria Bay

Signpost to everywhere

This bay is a surfers’paradise

It has been such a happy day and now we are going to pack up as much as possible the have a sushi supper in George so we can have an early night and leave for Addo at 6 am tomorrow morning.  Watch this space for more!