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With a long drive ahead of us, we left on Friday afternoon immediately after work, first dropping off Nicola's cats at the in-laws and then first grunting through Friday afternoon traffic and finally grimacing over the crappy R511 north of Brits. In Thabazimbi it took us a short while to find our B&B for the night which was pleasant enough and after some dinner and finishing off a few emails, it was off to bed.
At 6am we picked up our packaged breakfast, packed quickly and drove to Marakele as the sun still struggled over the eastern horizon. Arriving at the gate around 06:20, we were summarily told that the gate only opens at 7am, despite us confirming on the SANParks website that it opens at 6am. A little huffed, we sat in the car eating breakfast but while doing so, also listing our first birds: Southern pied babbler, Southern yellow-billed hornbill, Brown-crowned tchagra, Cape glossy starling. The reception staff only showed up at 07:10 and after I gave them a piece of my mind we were finally in the park. It was still cool and with high clouds obscuring the sun as well, it didn't look like it was going to warm up much during the day. We made our way north along the roads, adding a number of common bushveld birds including Southern white-crowned, Crimson-breasted and Magpie shrikes, before driving into the eastern section of the park and heading up Kransberg. The drive to over 2000m altitude is still breath-takingly beautiful and around the top we got virtually all the birds we were hoping to get including Short-toed and Cape rock-thrushes, Cape bunting, Mocking cliff, Familiar and Buff-streaked chats, Cape vultures and Gurney's sugarbirds. After a quick bite to eat we headed down again and did the Mbidi loop past Tlopi tented camp - the road here definitely needs a high-clearance vehicle. I think this used to be part of the 4x4 trails of the park and apparently they haven't changed much of it. But it was a pretty drive and we got a nice surprise in the form of Yellow-bellied greenbuls just before Tlopi. Back in the western section we stopped off at the bird hide overlooking a sad excuse for a dam and then made our way to Bontle campsite. The tent was up quickly and after a lazy afternoon we had dinner and then headed for the tent.
The sun wasn't up yet as we left for the picnic site to have breakfast. The birds were very quiet here but as the sun rose, the calls got louder too and we connected with three bird parties, each holding around 15 species or so. Highlights included Southern pied babbler, Crimson-breasted shrike, Chinspot batis, Lesser honeyguide, Yellow-bellied greenbul, Long-billed crombec, Grey-backed camaroptera, Grey tit-flycatcher, Red-headed weaver, African hoopoe, Green-winged pytilia and Great sparrow. By 10am we were back in the campsite to pack up our bedding and tent before making our way home.
A nice little weekend break - Marakele's western section is still one of the classic bushveld birding sites and the eastern section still spectacular. The summer will hold many more birds but we're still a little scared of the heat...
