Windy Brow hiking trail Nov 2010

Nicola got back from work early on Friday afternoon and by 4pm we had dropped off the cats and were on our way to Windy Brow Game Farm, just outside Cullinan. George, Brian, Shirley and Eddy were already there and had started our braai fire as usual. The evening was spent looking at our wedding photos and slideshow and Eddy had some fascinating pictures of his 1923 Citroen he has been building up over the past few years.

Day 1 (20 Nov): Dawn woke me up early so I bundled Nicola out of bed as well. We had breakfast while the rest still snored away and by 06:30 we were ready to start walking. Deciding to do our own thing, we headed off towards the top of a ridge, walking through newly grown veld with bright green tufts of grass. Cuckoos were calling all over and we added to this Golden-tailed woodpecker, Little swift, Spotted thickknee, European bee-eater, Amethyst sunbird, Rufous-naped lark and even Long-tailed paradise whydah among the other more common ones. We stuck to the top of the ridge until we reached a game fence, spotting also some zebra, blue wildebeest and a lone black-backed jackal. At the fence we turned west and then skirted below the ridge, turning back to the north until we picked up the actual trail close to a bungalow at the top of a saddle between two koppies. Here the veld hadn't burned and the trail was much more distinct, climbing to a high point on the koppie before dropping down the other side and overlooking a flat bit below where we saw giraffe and more wildebeest. We took a short break but afterwards it was only about a 15 minute walk back to the base camp, which we reached around 9am, a short but pleasant 2 and a half hour stroll. While waiting for the other four to get back from their hike, we browsed some of the birding magazines Shirley brought us and decided to go looking for Blue swallow in Kaapsehoop the following weekend. The others arrived just before 11am and since the sun was blazing down by now, we spent lunch and the afternoon in the shade. Nicola spotted a yellowish bird which upon closer inspection turned out to be a honeyguide. We chased it around a bit, trying to get a closer look and after it called, we were later able to positively ID it as a Lesser honeyguide. Later Shirley, Nicola and I went for a quick swim and at 5pm we took a walk to the game field to see some more birds and game before having dinner. We had an early night followed by an early morning, watching a hot-air balloon rising at around 5am. My shoulders got a bit of a tan in the pool the previous day and as we've basically seen all there is to see, we decided to head back.