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.

Master blaster: 48 hours in the Vumba

“Brimstone Canary”|”Brown-backed Honeybird “|”Dark-capped Yellow Warbler”|”Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon”|”Grey Penduline-tit”|”Miombo tits”|”Olive sunbirds”|”Orange Ground Thrush”|”White-tailed Crested Flycatcher”|”Whitestarred robins “|”Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird”|”Yellowstreaked greenbuls”|African Firefinch|African Goshawk|African Palm Swifts|Ashy Flycatcher|Augur Buzzard|Bar-throated Apalis|bird ring|Black Cuckooshrike|Black-fronted bush-shrikes|Bronzy Sunbird|Buluwesi Murambiwa|Cabanis’s Bunting|Cape Batis|Chirinda Apalis|Cinnamon-breasted tit|Collared Sunbird|Eastern Highlands|Eastern Saw-wings|Green-capped Eremomela|Grey Cuckooshrike|Lazy Cisticola|Miombo Double-collared sunbird|Miombo Rock Thrush|Morgan Trimble|Olive bushshrikes|Red-capped Robin-chat|Red-faced Crombec|Red-throated Twinspot|Scaly-throated Honeyguide|Southern Hyliota`|Streaky-headed Seedeater|Stripe-cheeked Greenbul|Striped-cheeked greenbuls|Swynnerton’s robin|Swynnerton’s robins|White-eared Barbet|White-starred robin|Yellow-bellied Waxbills|Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird|Zimbabwe