Around the world in 51 days - that's what we had signed up for. It all started well over a year ago with booking a 10 day tour to see the endemic birds of Western Australia. But we can't fly that far and only stay for a short time, so more planning was needed. One thing led to another, and over the course of months we had it lying flat. We would start with South Africa at the end of August for a two week tour that would give us a chance to see all kinds of living things rarely if ever seen by tourists. Next we would fly to Western Australia for 3+ weeks on our own, hopefully seeing flowers in one of the best botanical regions in the world (please rain, come to Western Australia). And finally we would join our endemic bird tour. It will take several posts to cover it all, so let's start with South Africa.
This tour wasn't like our typical birding adventures, but sounded too amazing to pass up. Two weeks visiting little known spots (by tourist standards) searching out "enigmas," those rarely seen or fascinating wildlife species. Everything from birds and mammals to reptiles and insects - you name it. And it was spring, in another botanical wonder of the world, and the promise was we'd stop for flowers if the rains had come to the desert. We weren't disappointed, the rains did come and it was incredible. This tour is run by Tropical Birding Tours. The tour leaders were company co-owner Keith Barnes and Cape Town biologist Cliff Dorse, along with assistants Zac and Gabriel. When it comes to finding herps and small mammals, it takes a lot of hard work and searching. Cliff, Zac and Gabriel were amazing and turned up more than we ever could have imagined.
The route we followed started in the small town of Kimberly, west to the coast, then south to Cape Town.
It's too much to cover this all in excruciating detail, so I'll try and keep this somewhat brief with other resources (for those that want to deep dive) and highlights.
We saw 229 species of birds including 47 life birds:
In iNaturalist I catalogued 234 species of plants, 47 species of reptiles, 10 species of amphibians, a few mammals (I mostly left out the larger mammals in iNaturalist), 28 species of arachnids and insects, and a few other odds and ends.
Guides Zac Babbit and Keith Barnes wrote an outstanding trip report for the Tropical Birding website. I can't recommend enough that if this type of trip interests you, this is a must read:
We started the trip with a two night stay at Marrick Game Reserve and the nearby Mokala National Park. This is probably the best location to see the elusive nocturnal animals in the wild like Aardvark, Aardwolf, and many others. We did two night drives at Marrick with a daytime visit to the park and had great success.
Bat-eared Fox
Aardvark
Southern Springhare
Southern White Rhinoceros
On day three we moved west to Augrabies Falls National Park where the Orange River cuts through the granite cliffs. We arrived mid-afternoon after some roadside botanizing, birding, etc, and a leisurely lunch. and in time to make the short walk from our bungalows to the falls in sunset light. It was beautiful.
Augrabies Falls
Quiver Tree
Kraal Aloe (Aloe claviflora)
Gariep Aloe (Aloe gariepensis)
African Wildcat
Following dinner we went for a walk near the waterfall looking for night critters. And we did well. Two prizes were Augrabies Gecko and Southern Small-spotted Genet. The following morning we did a couple of short walks and some driving in the area. Great views of the river gorge. The afternoon was travel to the one-horse town of Poffadder where we hope to see the highly endemic Red Lark in the nearby dunes at dawn.
Southern Small-spotted Genet
Augrabies Gecko
Augrabies Flat Lizard
Augrabies Flat Lizard
Orange River Gorge
Rock Hyrax
Day 5. We left the hotel very early for the 45 minute drive to the sand dunes to see the endemic and highly range restricted Red Lark. The males are just starting to do their aerial displays for spring nesting season so we had no problems finding them. After some other general birding we started our journey towards the coast. About an hour later we entered Namaqualand, one of the most famous and amazing spots for flowers in the world. We were not disappointed. We would be in prime flower country for the rest of the trip. There are so many new flower families here that it is mind blowing. And carpets of flowers that are a true spectacle. Heaven on earth.
We arrived at the coast town of Port Noloth late afternoon. Port Noloth is in the coastal fog belt, an area that gets little rain but has dense fog many mornings. It is a unique habitat that stretches from here up the coast to southern Namibia, and with it comes some pretty unique plants and animals. After some advanced scouting by our excellent guides we went out after dark to see the incredible and rarely observed Desert Rain Frog. This has to be one of the cutest animals on earth.
Hunting for Red Larks
Eastern Clapper Lark
Red Lark
Red Lark
Mouse Dewfig (Drosanthemum hispidum)
We are in Namaqualand
Coastal fog dune habitat of the Rain Frog
Desert Rain Frog
For those reading by email, don't miss the Desert Rain Frog video below with this YouTube link.
Desert Rain Frog video
Austen's Thick-toed Gecko
Day 6 was an amazing day (aren't they all?). We spent the day in the coastal dune habitat looking for anything - lizards, snakes, birds, and flowers. Many wonderful sightings with the megas being Namaqua Dwarf Adder (venomous snake), Brant’s Whistling Rat (a rabbit relative that looks like a Pika), and two species of Ferraria (Starfish lilies) - Desert Spiderlily and Black Flag, both absolutely stunning. We even had two of the least observed butterflies on earth - Chrysoritis trimeni and Aloeides nollothi (only three observations of each ever in iNaturalist).
Striped Dwarf Burrowing Skink
Cross-marked Sand Snake
Brants's Whistling Rat
Cape Sand Snake
Aloeides nollothi
Chrysoritis trimeni
Guides Cliff and Zac documenting a Cape Sand Snake
Black Flag (Ferraria Crispa)
Desert Spider Lily (Ferraria schaeferi)
Namaqua Dwarf Adder
Who doesn't need a portrait with a dwarf adder?
How is this color even possible?
Sunset on a wonderful day
Day 7. We moved from Port Nolloth inland to the small town of Springbok. Stopping several times for flowers along the way we saw some beauties. As we left the weather along the coast was miserable fog and mist, exactly like it’s supposed to be, making us appreciate how truly special the previous day was with sun, blue skies, and no wind all day. The following days we would spend in the heart of Namaqualand, a semi-arid habitat with granite mountains. This area has some of the most extensive endemism of plants in the world, and amazing displays when good winter rain falls (it did this year). We hoped to see more amazing flowers.
Beetle Daisy (Gorteria diffusa)
Skull Glad (Gladiolus skullyi)
Karoo Viooltjie (Lachenalia violacea)
Moraea bolusii
Weber's Thick-toed Gecko
One of the cape daisies or relatives that I haven't been able to put a name on yet
Skull Glad (Gladiolus skullyi)
Day 8. We spent the entire day on a private reserve in the Karoo scrub of Namaqualand. It was exceptional. The flowers were at peak and we saw many birds, mammals, reptiles, and of course, FLOWERS! On the reptile front, two enigmatic specialties - Speckled Padloper (the world’s smallest tortoise), and Many-horned Adder (an exceptionally rare viper). The best mammal was Western Rock Elephant Shrew, or Western Rock Sengi. And for birds, the range restricted Cinnamon-breasted Warbler was super cool.
Day 9. Continuing our exploration of Namaqualand we visited a conservation property in the mountains south of Springbok. There were birds and other things but mostly we found flowers. Lots of new species at this higher elevation. And some real beauties too. We also saw Klipspringer today, a tiny and dainty antelope that lives on rocks like our mountain goat.
Klipspringer
Pink Eveninglily (Hesperantha pauciflora)
Bonnie Lionface (Nemesia ligulata)
Namaqua Paraseed (Ursinia calenduliflora)
Granite Kabong (Lapeirousia silenoides)
Namaqua Lance Skink (Acontias namaquensis)
Day 10. While we got a couple of life birds and some new reptiles today, it was really about the flowers. We spent the entire day on the South Africa Escarpment near Nieuwoudtville and it was amazing. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
Day 11. Today was mostly travel south but we had a long stop in the morning for lizards, snakes and small mammals. And we saw some pretty cool, and rare, animals. This trip was billed as a search for pretty much anything “enigmatic,” and some of these reptiles certainly fit the bill. After lunch we visited a large Cape Gannet colony at Lambert's Bay which was very fun.
Spotted Harlequin Snake
Cuvier's Blind Legless Skink
Namaqua Rain Frog
Namaqua Rain Frog
Peter's Burrowing Skink
West African Pygmy Mouse (Temminck's mouse)
Cape Gannet colony
Cape Gannets
Day 12. We were now in Cape Town for our last two days of the tour. The morning and early afternoon were spent in West Coast National Park north of Capetown. Birds, reptiles, and flowers, including some very rare species. Then we headed into Capetown to beat the rush hour traffic. One more full tour day tomorrow.
Egg Eating Snake
Moraea angusta
Pink Kalkoentjie (Gladiolus meliusculus)
Shaggy Froetang (Romulea hirsuta)
Day 13. The last day of this tour was quite fun. We spent the morning and early afternoon in Table Mountain National Park which is surrounded by the city of Capetown and suburbs, but is quite huge. It it a special habitat call fynbos, a unique dune and sandstone mountain habitat with thousands of endemic plants and animals. We even got to visit the Cape of Good Hope on the tip of the peninsula We finished the day with one more night outing to see one of the rarest frogs in the world, the Micro Frog, known from only three tiny remnant sites. The site we visited was actually a horse racing track that incidentally saved the habitat when the land was purchased in the 1800’s. We were there with researchers who captured a few of the tiny frogs for observation.
African Penguins
Southern Double-collared Sunbird
Orange-breasted Sunbird
Cape Sugarbird
Can't finish this post without at least one Ostrich photo!
Cape of Good Hope
Bontebok
Heading out across the race track for frogs
Examining the frogs captured by researchers
Micro Frog, as rare as they come
Bonus sighting on the return walk, Cape Dwarf Chameleon
That will wrap up the post for this tour, but not the trip by any means, as next up is Western Australia!
