With wonderful memories of our Spring Flowers trip through parts of the Western Cape in September 2021 still fresh in our minds, I said to Gerda some time during July – “Let’s go see the flowers again”. She responded positively and the game was on!

First step was to decide on our route and where to base ourselves along the way – the main drivers in those decisions were to avoid travelling too far from our Mossel Bay home and to spend three nights in a couple of strategic places which would allow two full days of exploration in each without feeling rushed in any way. This is how you do it when you reach that age where the second special tax rebate kicks in ….. in fact the trip was our birthday present to ourselves, falling nicely between our two birthdays just 13 days apart.

Day 1

Day 1 (31st August 2022) was all about getting to Tulbagh from where we would ‘launch’ our flowers trip proper. The drive of around 350 kms from Mossel Bay was comfortable yet busy on roads which seem to get fuller with each passing year. Our route took us past Swellendam, Ashton, Robertson, Worcester and Tulbagh to our overnight stay on Saronsberg Wine Farm where we had booked one of their Vineyard Cottages, which turned out to be comfortable and well fitted out.

After arriving at 4 pm and settling in I had a look for birds near the cottage, then set off on an exploratory walk around some of the farm roads.

The first bird that caught my eye was the very common Southern Fiscal – not usually of specific interest but this individual was struggling with some sort of prey so I stepped closer and found it had caught a small snake and was busy trying to “butcher” it by hooking it on to a protruding twig and pulling – presumably to expose its flesh.

Birding on the farm while walking produced the usual species for the most part, with a few specials such as Alpine Swifts, a Purple Heron and a Spotted Eagle-Owl in the tall Eucalyptus trees that line a part of one of the farm roads.

Dinner was Roosterkoek – traditional grilled bread filled with savoury mince and cheese – bought at a popular roadside restaurant at Buffeljagsrivier near Swellendam – they call them “Sloppy Joes” and are very filling to say the least!

On the way we had seen occasional signs of emerging spring flowers and on Saronsberg the unplanted fields had a sprinkling of yellow flowers, which augered well for the trip to some of the renowned flower hotspots over the days ahead

So, a quiet start to our Flowers Trip but lots to look forward to, with our next stop being Clanwilliam the next day