Hidden pleasure: Birding the Baviaanskloof

THE LUSH VALLEY of the Baviaanskloof in the Eastern Cape stretches for approximately 200
kilometres in a roughly west to east direction, between the towns of Willowmore in the west
and Patensie in the east. The kloof nestles between the Kouga Mountains to the south and
the Baviaanskloof range to the north.
It is not really on the way to anywhere and ranks as one of the more remote wilderness
areas in South Africa. If your destination isn’t specifically the Baviaans, then it is unlikely that
you will ever land up there. Although we have holidayed in the Eastern Cape for the past 30
years, we had never visited the Baviaanskloof, so this year we decided to change that and
headed there for a few days during the summer holidays.

Zululand zenith

“African Dusky flycatchers”|”African Green Pigeons”|”African Stonechats”|”Black-bellied Glossy Starlings”|”Brimstone Canary”|”Bushveld Pipit”|”Crested Guineafowl”|”Dark Chanting Goshawks”|”Hooded Vultures”|”Hottentot Teal “|”Lesser Striped Swallows”|”Red-crested Bustard”|”Whiteeared Barbets”|accipiter|Adam Riley|African Cuckoo Hawk|Bateleur|Bennett’s Woodpeckers|BirdLasser Lockdown Challenge|Black Cuckooshrike|Black-rumped Buttonquail|Blue-mantled Crested Flycatchers|Cape Batises|Cape Rock Thrush|Common Buttonquails|Common Buzzard|COVID-19|Crowned Eagle|Dark-capped Bulbul|Diederik cuckoos|Eastern Nicator|ecotourism|Fiscal flycatchers|Gorgeous Bushshrike|Great White Pelican|Grey Waxbills|Jackal Buzzards|Klaas’s cuckoos|Lockdown|Magpie Shrike|Martial Eagle|Mocking Cliff Chat|Neergaard’s Sunbird|Ovambo|Pink-throated Twinspots|Plain-backed Pipit|Quailfinches|Red-headed Weaver|Rock Kestrel|Shelley’s Francolin|Striped Pipit|Trumpeter Hornbills|Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl|Violet-backed Starling|Wattled Starlings|Woodland Kingfisher