Marital bliss is...

[Lisbeth]

I am waiting to know where the "Marital bliss" comes in

[Peter Connan]

Thanks everybody.

Lisbeth, Marital bliss is finding a holiday destination all members of the family enjoy!

[Peter Connan]

And so dawns our last day at the sea.

The first significant sighting for my morning walk was this magnificent Bushbuck ram:


But he seems to be bleeding from around his eye?


I would love to know what that was from?

But the birding is quiet, and all I see are Natal Robbins


and the Tinkerbirds again. Shortly the tractors arrive with their boats, and i decide to photograph the launch operation. Because I only have the 500mm lens with me, this means I have to walk a long way past them in order to get them in the frame. In fact, having gone as far as possible without swimming, I can still only get either the tractor or the boat in the frame, but not both. The first tractor, a beautifully restored Mercedes MB Trax 1300, has unloaded his boat by now and is pushing it down the beach, but he manages to push the boat skew. But when the driver tries to manuevre the tractor into a better position, something goes wrong.I found out later that the gear lever had broken.



After a period of fiddling, the second tractor gets ready to launch his boat. He unloads the boat, drives around, unhitches the trailer, then moves to the front of the boat again, hitches it to a short rope in order to pull it closer to the sea, and also breaks down.



So much for photographing the launch operation.

I walk back to find out what the problem is, when two fish eagles come soaring over.




Obviously, they are playing a major role in deforestation in the area.

The girls find and photograph a Hermit Crab on the beach:


I had wanted to go back to the Starling nest, but the campsite is now completely full, and so I cannot find a place to sit that is not too close to the nest for the bird's comfort.
It was also interesting to note that as the campsite got fuller, we saw fewer Red Duiker, but somehow more Bushbuck, which I thought strange. We also had less hassles from the monkeys, as there were more campers for them to steal from. We also had a number of visits from Bushbabies in the evenings, but somehow it never occurred to me to try and photograph them?

This effectively concludes the Maphelane section of the holiday, as nothing of interest happened that afternoon and the next morning was spent packing up and leaving.

[nan]

love the "Bernard l'Hermite"

[Lisbeth]

Maybe it would be the case to get a new tractor and a smaller boat.....a difficult decision

Beautiful fish eagle with nest decorations

Strange to see an eye bleeding, with no obvious reason and he is so handsome!

[Tina]

stunning pictures

about all your bird sightings. I hope to see some of them in March. Actually, I would not mind seeing all of them

[Peter Connan]

Our next stop was the tiny KZN Wildlife park called Phongolo. It it situated on the shore of the Pongola/Jozini dam, and right in the corner between SA and Swaziland.

However, we drive past and into the town of Pongola first to do some shopping and to grab some KFC for lunch.

Another venue best known for fishing and boating, the game reserve offers camping in neat camp-sites, each sporting a braai and 220V power which seems to be on all the time. There are also several excellent ablution blocks. The only criticism I have about the ablutions is that hot water is only available in the showers, and this is supplied by an interesting little electrical device (called a "Speed Heat") fitted directly to the shower rose, and fed by a single tap. Thus there is no choice of water temperature, and this is far too hot for December. We bag a campsite which has a direct view of the dam, and a couple of Knobthorn trees that give a modicum of shade.

The cloudy weather of the previous day had given way to bright sunlight, and it was extremely hot. We arrived at our campsite at mid day, and sit around for a while before I get impatiant and start pitching camp. We take it slowly and are done by three, whereupon we decide to go for a game drive in the air-conditioned relative comfort of the car.



Red-backed Shrike (male and female):






Little Stint:


Pied Kingfisher:


The Call of Africa:


Steppe Buzzard:



European Bee-eater:


Back at camp, we have visitors:


The park is full of Warthog, all of which now have babies along.



We were told that there are hiena, but we saw no sign of them. Certainly there are no other large predators (except probably the odd leopard passing through). Thus general game is quite abundant.

[Lisbeth]

[Toko]

Warthog mom looks somewhat annoyed, but the hoglets don't care

Great Fish-eagle

Which camp is that?

[Peter Connan]

I take a walk around the campsite.

Spotted Flycatcher


Purple-banded Sunbird:







Black-winged Stilt:


Egyptian Goose:


Water Thick-knee:


Grey Heron:




But my wife is really struggling with the heat. Her feet are swollen, she is nauseous and she has a headache. She asks that we come hom a day early, and I agree, but we still have one day left and I persuade her that we go to Mkhuze the next day.

But first I do some time-lapse photography of the sunset, and after dinner I take some photos of the stars.