Day 2 (1 July): This day was our Great White Shark trip. A photo page will be up in due course. The van picked us up at 6:15 am and, after picking up 10 other passengers, we drove two hours to Gansbaai. After breakfast there we climbed aboard a small modified dive-boat for the half-hour trip to Dyer Island. Again, the wind was howling offshore but we anchored on the lee side where the seas were calm. We anchored here for 5 hours (as had 6 other small boats) and put out bait in hopes for sharks. It took a couple hours, but then the sharks got interested and we ended up seeing five huge Great White Sharks (2 male, 3 female). While waiting we enjoyed an assortment of seabirds, including both species of Giant Petrel that came to pick at the bait. Enroute back to Cape Town we got distant views of Southern Right Whales in Walker Bay. We didn't get back to the hotel until 7:30 pm (after dark) but we learned via phone that Richard had seen a sheathbill today, and that tomorrow's planned pelagic trip was canceled due to high winds.

Day 3 (2 July): We spent all morning chasing after sheathbills in the Cape Town harbor in high winds. We scoped two birds early on from a long distance but they disappeared, and by the time other birders had gathered, we could not show them to others (I'm sure our credibility took a dive). If nothing else, the  view of Cape Town & Table Mt. (right; Richard is scoping the distant jetties on which we had the sheathbills) was good. Fortunately, local birder Eugene Fourie turned up and as he worked out at the loading docks, he took us through locked gates to the spots we had scoped. They weren't there either, but I scoped one on another distant jetty, and after more back streets, we found it for photos before it took off to the far end of the harbor. We then transferred from City Lodge, which is downtown by the harbor, to the Afton Grove guesthouse in Noordhoek, a pretty little bed-and-breakfast much closer to Simonstown (port for the boat trip) and the Cape of Good Hope. Afton Grove is also run by birders so there were bird magazines of interest in our room!
   The wind was now blowing very hard and we learned that even tomorrow's back-up day for the boat was canceled (but they would try to reschedule for Monday). In the afternoon we drove a couple hours east of Cape Town along the coast, visiting sites along Walker Bay (e.g., Hermaness, Rooiels) and through Richard's local knowledge picked up much-wanted birds: Victorin's Warbler, Cape Sugarbird, and Cape Rockjumper! It was a 3-new-family day for me. Late in the afternoon we stopped briefly at Strandfontein, a major waterbird site south of Cape Town.

Day 4 (3 July): We began this gloomy overcast day at Jonker Dam, a spot the locals call "Black Hill," west of Noordhoek. Walking trails here through fynbos habitat proved to be excellent, especially as the day warmed up. Fynbos is a low, scrubby, succulent habitat — vaguely recalling chaparral — but composed of native plants such as Protea. It is the linchpin habitat of the Cape Floral Kingdom. As I understand it, there are only six Floral Kingdoms on earth (e.g., all of North America and Eurasia is in one Floral Kingdom), and the Cape Floral Kingdom is limited to a small part of one country: South Africa. Over 8700 species of plants are endemic to this tiny Kingdom. Bird highlights included Cape Grassbird, Orange-breasted & Southern Double-collared Sunbird, Red-headed (Gray-backed) Cisticola, and Cape Siskin.
   At midday we visited the Cape of Good Hope Nat'l Park — lovely scenario and a nice lunch, with re-introduced Eland and Blesbok thrown in — and then a late afternoon visit to Kirstenbosch Gardens on the lower slopes of Table Mountain. Here we ticked, among others, Cape Batis, Forest Buzzard (a lucky coup), and a feeding flock of dainty Swee Waxbill (another coup). At dinner we learned that they make decent pizza in South Africa, enjoyed with an '04 Beyerskloof Pinotage.

Day 5 (4 July): This was the day of Don's pelagic trip (see that link for full details). Rita chose not to do the pelagic but, instead, was able to arrange a ride to Cape Town and then a visit by ferry to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during the apartheid years. We celebrated all our successes with a superb dinner at the Southern Right Hotel in Glen Cairn, washed down with an excellent Fat Bastard Chardonnay.

Day 6 (5 June): An early morning visit to a local spot in the Constancia greenbelt eventually netted outstanding (almost unbelievable) views of the very secretive Knysna Warbler. We then headed north up the coast toward Lamberts Bay, stopping to bird the Tienie Versveld Wildflower Reserve (Cloud Cisticola in display, Thick-billed Lark) and West Coast Nat'l Park. The latter is a vast expanse of dunes with fynbos scrub in the inter dune valleys, and a huge lagoon with flamingos. A small pond off a side road yielded good views of African Rail and Karoo Lark, plus the first of a dozen Angulate Tortoises. We got only a distant view of Black Harrier, but at the north entrance gate area had startling close encounters with Black Bustard.
   A long detour inland in hopes of Protea Canary failed on that species, but near Wittewater we enjoyed a graceful pair of Blue Crane (below). We didn't actually make it to Lamberts Bay until after dark. We would see the famed Cape Gannet colony (below) until the next morning.

Day 9 (8 July): Today was mostly a travel day from Brandvlei to Augrabies Falls NP, via Kenhardt and Keimos (lunch). Of course we stopped when birds were spotted. New species today included our first Social Weavers and their incredible nests and, as we ventured into drier country more Kalahari in influence than karoo, our first Pririt Batis and Dusky Sunbird, and our first Martial Eagle, sitting calmly on a pole for photos. We reached Augrabies Falls Nat'l Park by mid-afternoon and immediately took in the grandeur of the falls (photos below). The literature says that the name of the falls comes from the Namaqua word for "place of great noise." Here the Orange River has gauged out an 18 km canyon through granite. At the top of the canyon is Augrabies Falls, which drop 56m (in comparison, Yosemite's Bridalveil Falls is a 75m drop). The entire Orange River narrows to go over the falls (much as does the White Nile at Murchison in Uganda). While Murchison and Victoria, Yosemite and Niagara and Angel, may be the world's most famous falls, this is certainly in the world's 'top ten' waterfalls. And I'd never heard of them before!

Day 10 (9 July): All day in Augrabies Falls NP. The park is famous not only for the falls but for the riverine/desert ecology here. We had close encounters with Klipspringers and baboons and many Rock Hyrax. Birding was also good, although we dipped on our various efforts to call up a Cinnamon-breasted Warbler. Some of the interesting birds here including Alpine Swift, the newly-split Orange River White-eye, and the very local Namaqua Warbler. It also turns out that the colorful rock lizards on the cliffs are the newly-split Rowley's Flat Lizard, endemic to this short stretch of the Orange River canyon.

Day 12 (11 July): We had spent the night in bungalows at Twee Rivieren, at the southern entrance to the park. Today we made the long, slow drive to Mata Mata, at the northern tip of the park. The road parallels a dry riverbed much of the way, and scattered herds of Gemsbok, Springbok, Blue Wildebeest, and scattered Steenbok graced the route. We stopped numerous times to watch mammals or photograph desert birds. Raptors were numerous, including Bateleur, Booted Eagle, Jackal Buzzard, and the very common Pale Chanting-Goshawk. We found several Pygmy Falcon at or near Social Weaver nests.

Day 13 (12 July): In the morning we tried various dirt tracks out of Mata Mata, coming upon Red-necked and Lanner Falcons, and our first Pearl-spotted Owlet of the trip (we would actually see over a dozen on the trip). Mammals seemed a bit sparse but we did observe some Meercats (but they were too skittish to photograph). In the afternoon we hung around Mata Mata, doing laundry by hand and stalking the tame birds coming to a little water drip inside the camp (including the Crimson-breasted Gonolek shown above). The nights here were exceedingly cold, and there wasn't much heat available in the rooms.

Day 14 (13 July): This day was the long, slow drive back from Mata Mata to Twee Rivieren, stopping as we happened to find birds or mammals of interest. We had most of the Kalahari birds by now, but Burchell's Sandgrouse was new at mid-day.
   That evening we did another night drive from Twee Rivieren. We went a different route and didn't see as much as on our first drive, but did add Barn Owl and another Wild Cat.

Day 15 (14 July): We knew that this and next two days were all long travel days. This is vast country and it would take many hours of driving — usually on fast tarred roads — to traverse southern Namibia. The worst stretch was the first 90 km out of Kalahari-Gemsbok NP, but it seemed less awful early in the morning than it had in the afternoon four days before. We had lunch in Upington, a prosperous town with a big shopping center, and even found an Internet cafe to check email. Then it was the long drive to Canyon Lodge (near Fish River Canyon in s. Namibia), once we had gone through the formalities at the South Africa-Namibia border.
   Canyon Lodge proved to be a beautifully designed lodge with a main house and many small bungalows set into a bowl of huge boulders. I'm sure it is full of herps in the summertime. Herping was rather slow throughout the trip due to the winter season. Nights were very cold.

Day 16 (15 July): We visited Fish River Canyon early in the morning. It is said to be the world's second largest canyon, after Arizona's Grand Canyon. It is desolate and barren and impressive (see photo below). We then continued north to Mariental (about 2/3 the way to Windhoek) and then a bit east to Anib Lodge for the night. The food and hospitality here were very good. We did our final night drive on the Lodge's property. They'd reintroduced many antelope in Kalahari-like dune habitat. Part of the package was a nice 'Sundowner' drink atop a dune as the sun sank into the desert.

Day 17 (16 July): It was a comparatively short 3-hour drive from Anib Lodge to Windhoek on paved roads, getting us to Namibia's capital by mid-day. Windhoek proved to be a very European city, and we had lunch in a balcony cafe that would have been at home in Paris or Amsterdam. Did a bit of shopping and Internet, and checked into Tamboti Lodge near downtown.
   In the afternoon we visited Avis Dam, on the eastern edge of Windhoek in nice rocky scrub habitat. Although the birding was surprisingly good — Rockrunner, Monteiro's Hornbill, Short-toed Rock Thrush — the little park was heavily used by people walking their dogs. This meant one spent more time watching your step than looking at birds. I hated how this good habitat site was being so misused.