Thursday 7th After yesterday's pointless early start we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast this morning. There was an iridescent sunbird out in the garden by the pool, and indeed it looked to be a gorgeously hot sunny day. Which it was; a bit too hot for me. It was about 10am before we made it into the park. The first excitement was noticing two huge, ugly maribou storks perched on a tree top near the gate visitor centre. Possible they always perch there but we usua...

We got up painfully early this morning to try to catch the animals at their busiest, and we were in the park by 6.15am, with no breakfast. We needn't have bothered, because we didn't see very much for a couple of hours. The weather was overcast and it drizzled a bit, and I think all the animals were keeping their heads down. It got better though. I drove along the main road through the park again, and took a side route which twisted and turned up a hillside wit...

Tuesday 5th Fulfilled one of my life's ambitions today. More of that later... We had a leisurely breakfast at the guest house in the company of a party of jovial French-speaking Africans, then drove to the gate to Pilanesburg Park. Bought day tickets and started ticking off new birds while we were still in the visitor centre - there was a red winged starling nesting in the thatched roof inside. We drove up the road a km or so and took a side road - unsurfaced b...