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.
A single road, the R332, leads into and out of the Baviaans. It enters the kloof in the west at the Nuwekloof Pass (the real start of any Baviaans adventure), about 40 kilo metres from Willowmore, and pops out at the eastern end at Kodomo, about 40 kilometres from the relatively advanced civilisation of Patensie. Just about every thing in between is true wilderness, with no cell phone reception and a real feeling of isolated peace and solitude.
Esta historia es de la edición July/August 2021 de African Birdlife.
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Esta historia es de la edición July/August 2021 de African Birdlife.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
