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Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:05 pm
by miguel santos
With a delay of 16 months I’m now presenting my trip report to Western Cape in South Africa.
As usual, this was a family trip with my wife and 2 teenage kids. We visited 7 locations in 12 days from the 24th of April until the 5th of May 2016 and we avoided long driving stretches. We visited several Nature Reserves both state and privately owned but we also spotted wildlife in parks and gardens.
South Africa was a great experience in many respects; the people, the landscapes, animals but also the food was great. The landscape was quite dry and the nights were getting cold but the weather was fine during the day. We managed to find a few reptile species but I had hoped for more snakes and at least one Leopard-tortoise. As for the amphibians, it was simply too dry and therefore I decided not to waste too much time with night searches.
We managed to find some great specimens and outside the scope of this site, we saw 30 species of mammals and 137 of birds most of wich I was able photograph.
The Trip started in Cape Town with a quick visit to the Cape of Good Hope where we lost a lot of time because it was Sunday and everyone was out on the road.
We stayed a few hours in Hermanus where we visited the Fernkloof Nature Reserve and headed East to The Hoop Nature Reserve. This is a great open area where we hiked by the coast and in the dunes.
After the Hoop Nature Reserve, we went to the Cape folding hills arround swellendam and Montagu. We hiked on those hills but also in the dry area known as Little Karoo.
The last few days were spent arround the Cederberg to the East of Clanwilliam and at the coast in the area of Doringbaai and Strandfontein. There I saw the only DOR snake of the entire trip, a (psammophis leightoni) from wich I do not present a picture.
I hope I’ll hike the same paths and a few new ones in the near future, to once again try to find the very interesting species that roam the great landscapes of South Africa.
Miguel.

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:42 pm
by Michal Szkudlarek
Did you have to pay for entering private nature reserves? Are they being subsidized by state?

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:50 pm
by miguel santos
Fore some reson I'm not able to place more pics at this time.
I'll try later on again.
My mobile and my computer can not access the page for some reason...

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:45 am
by miguel santos
To answer you question Michal, I did have to pay to enter both types of reserves.
You pay a conservation fee to acess all state reserves in Western Cape including the Cape of Good Hope.
I also stayed for the night in a few reserves, you can camp or rent a room/house.
You can enter the Fernkloof reserve in Hermanus for free.
I avoided the Game reserves where you are not even allowed to walk because of Lions, Buffalo and other animals.
Half of my picutes were taken outside those reserves. You can safely walk in the Cederberg area or along the West and South Coast.
We also took a few hikes on the hills arround Swellendam and Montagu and there were plenty other hikers on the paths. we never felt unconfortable doing that.
I would not do the same just outside other towns closer to Cape Town....
That was at least my own feeling.

PS:I finally managed to place all the pictures but I kept the text to a minimum because I was afraid I would loose the connection to the site after editing.
I lost the connection quite some times in the process.

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:11 pm
by Bobby Bok
Good job on finding that Bitis rubida! The grasshopper appears to be Dictyophorus spumans.

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:12 pm
by Michal Szkudlarek
Miguel, are these reserves fenced?

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:54 pm
by miguel santos
I think they are all fenced to prevent bigger wild to roam agriculture lands nearby The Hoop is fenced for sure it is quite big 34000Ha see :
http://www.capenature.co.za/reserves/de ... e-reserve/
Fernkloof is not fenced (I think) and you have a nice parking area and info center in the valley in Hermanus.
I visited The African Game Lodge ( North of Montagu) about 5000Ha of Private reserve next to a few other state and private owned in a greater well defined conservation area. This one is really nice because they have a lot of hiking tracks through the dry karoo but also 2 dams that attract a lot of wildlife. They have no Lions therefore you walk along giraffes, wildebeest, kudos, springboks, aardvark, oryx and all other smaller wildlife.
In the Northwest (Cederberg and the coast) and in the Cape fold Mountains (Montagu and Swellendam) nothing is fenced except maybe for very small properties.
You don't actually need to go into fenced areas to see most or any herp type.
But there is a lot of other wildlife you can see on the reserves and also the habitat restoration taking place in some of them does provide shelter to many herp species.

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:05 pm
by Michal Szkudlarek
Thanks for info Miguel but do you know whether private wildlife reserves are subsidized by the state?

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:07 pm
by miguel santos
Hi Bobby,
I was very happy to have found the (Bitis rubida), the local guide from the reserve had never seen one before, I gave him the pictures for reference. They keep a nice record of birds sightings and other animals but no rubida in it.
(Dictyophorus spumans)?
I think you are right!
Bedankt,

Miguel

Re: Western Cape April-May 2016

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:10 pm
by miguel santos
sorry Michal I really don't know.
Maybe you can ask them on :

http://africangamelodge.co.za/

Good luck.