Australia April 2019 2nd week - 9/4-Tuesday

Tuesday:  Had a well needed normal night's sleep. Awoke to my "personal alarm clock" ie Kookaburras.
Out early to experiment with big lens (did take some shots yesterday afternoon. Very chuffed). Hot day like yesterday so parrot life scarce. Every bird we come across is a newbie for us. Trying to get to grips with identifying them is quite challenging.

Bell Miner (Bell like call)

Common Bronzewing

Lewins Honeyeater

Little Wattlebird

Long Billed Corella

Magpie Lark

New Holland Honey Eater

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Really enjoying tracking these little critters down.

Australia April 2019 First Week

Arrived on Sunday31/3/19 @ 3:30.
Wonderful to see Domi,  Jay and the boys after all this time. (They've been here 2 years already). Royal welcome from the Black Beasties.
First impressions: neat, clean, soft water, lots of well behaved traffic, vast areas of preserved natural bush, eucalyptus, colourful birds.
Had our first Woodland Meander. Oh, wow. Parrots, cockatoos, kookaburras, miners, magpies ... All so exotic. Awesome. I didn't bring my big lens so was getting frustrated with inability to adequately capture the birds. Ordered  600mm Sigma lens. Will receive in approx one week. Can't wait. Also online, I ordered a kookaburra ornament for our lapa. It's the national bird of NSW. Awoken by their hysterical laughing call every morning. Bliss.
Jet lag hit us on the Sunday night. Couldn't sleep from about 1am onwards despite being very tired.  Both up and watching tv.
During the day, we decided to take a walk to nearby Woolworths to stock up on some provisions (replace handcream and shampoo impounded at customs plus WINE). Warning:  Venues appear much nearer when travelling in cars. Turned out to be a 4km walk, mostly uphill in bright sunlight.
Monday night saw us exhausted but able to sleep and get back into a more natural pattern.
Dom and Jay are still working so we mosey around the Woodlands Meander to our hearts content. Forgot to take the dogs on our first day, but have remembered since then.
On Thursday we went to The Australian Brewery. Had a lovely steak, chips and veg. Nice venue and reasonably priced.
D&J took Friday off. We went by car to Manly Beach then ferry to Sydney. Lovely scenic view of the Bridge and Opera House. Stunning walk in Botanical Gardens. Ferry back to Manly, battered fish (flathead) and chips for lunch. Expensive but nice.
Saturday = soccer day. Watched Zac (2nd division under 10's) then off to a different venue for Ben's (1st division under 8's) match. Both play very well.
That evening we met Geoff, Kylie, Addie  (who had just qualified for the national acrobatic team) and Hunter. Wonderful people, good grub at our first Oz barbie and lots to drink. Hangover from hell on Sunday.
Sunday we were off to Cumberland State Forest for Zac to attend a  birthday party. (Treetop zip lining). Yet another beautiful setting.
Forgot to mention: Sunday saw daylight saving kick out so clocks pulled back 1 hour. Sleeping pattern all up the Creek again!
The weather for the past week has been deliciously mild, borderline fresh. Temp starts to pick up to low 30's from today (Sunday) into next week.
2nd week: started the week off with an early morning woodland meander, with dogs, as we are expecting the courier to arrive. Saw two young kangaroos! Dogs went ballistic (so did we).  We have nicknamed this pathway (one of many), Bamboo Lane as there is a healthy batch of bamboo growing along a section of it.
D&J are wonderful hosts, really laying it on for us. Dom's grub is delicious and varied. The venues they have shown us, including Aldi's ( :) ), are interesting and/or fascinating.
Trying to find the most compatible/easiest way to move money to D&J. Decided on PayPal.  Battled most of last week to try set Domi up (specifically linking her bank account) with no success. Jay accomplished it on his side. Don't know what he did differently to us but it worked!!!!

Dragon Blood Tree in background

KNP PKOP 27/11 to 29/11/17

Left home before the crack of dawn on Monday to arrive at Malalane gate around 7ish. Overcast for 2 days with sporadic rainfalls. Southern KNP is very green and bushy making viewing somewhat difficult. Did manage to spot a parrot

Also a huge herd of Buffalo with their accompanying oxpeckers

There are a lot of impala lambs around.

Competitiveness starts young!
Checked into chalet and went for a drive around Mnaung late afternoon. Baboon troup is back in residence there. We enjoyed the antics of these two for a while.

On the way back to camp, a den of Hyena made an appearance.

(Lighting very poor at this stage).
Oh, nearly forgot, we had a sighting of a leopard's tail as the cat disappeared into thick bush!

Next day, Tuesday, a few of the usual suspects plus a lot of sightings of cuckoos (Jacobin, Striped, Didericks, Red Chested).

Unable to get decent photos at a lot of the sightings.

Coqui francolin posed nicely

As did the Woodlands

Not a particularly brilliant shot of a piggy but the first time we have ever seen one smile

Left the park via Malalane after a short but wonderful stay.

KNP 5/5/16 Pkop

Really battling with this blogger app. Will look at alternatives once home.
Yesterday, late afternoon, a troop of monkeys had a huge altercation about 10 meters from us. Next thing, three of them started agressively challenging us. Luis was kicking sand in their faces to try and keep them at bay. Fortunately a neighbour came running to our rescue armed with a taser .... that did the trick. My guess is they were in pain (limping), adrenalin pumping and thinking we inflicted the pain!!!! Scary stuff!

Early to bed and early to rise seems to be our adage this trip. In bed by 7 and up at 4! (Actually, I lay awake from 2am ...). Heard barn owl, bats, hyena and night jar.
Pleasant run this morning.
Yellow longclaw posed beautifully for us.
Fighting hippos kept us entertained at Mestel for a good while.

KNP 4/5/16 Pretoriuskop

Loooottttts of driving today. Had a sighting of a leopard 's tail as it twitched through the grass deeper into the bush. 
Had a couple of good photo opportunities, including up close and personal with a pair of saddle bills.

KNP 3/5/16 Pretoriuskop

Uneventful 5 hour journey to get to Malelane gate. A further 6 hours to get  to Pretoriuskop ... we get easily sidetracked.
Distant sighting of cheetah
Close sighting of somnolent lions (2 males) but apart from breathing, they didn't move.
Few rhino, ellie and other usual suspects.

Villa Spa 3/7/15 to 12/7/15

Thought this would be a good opportunity to test drive the Galaxy Tab S.
Weather has been good, much warmer than usual for this time of year. Had a bit of soft rain ... much needed as KZN is experiencing drought issues.
Didn't bring my big lens as didn't think much would happen in way of photo opportunities (read unusual bird activity). Who should come to greet us this morning but an African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene). Curses but fortunately Luis' baby lens saved the day.
Can't quite figure out how to add text after pics posted but did discover that an offline draft can be saved!  Fishing has not been good (nonexistent).