This week’s blog post was written on my iPad during our flight from Durban to Cape Town and could have even been posted during the flight using the WiFi available onboard our Mango flight but I wanted to save it until I had processed some images and to try and keep the postings in a chronological order. I will share more photos from the Vulture Hide over the coming weeks.

The Vulture hide at Giant’s Castle in the Drakensberg is a place I have long wanted to visit. The ideal time is in the autumn and winter months when the vultures need food supplementation while breeding so I hadn’t considered it as an option during our visit during summer and, in fact, my recollection was that it was not operational at this time of year. During a day visit we found that it was open and a trip was planned for the following day. A 04h00 start was needed to make it to the reserve in time for the 06h00 departure and thick mist climbing up from Mooi River had me concerned that I hadn’t allowed sufficient time for the trip bearing in mind the horribly potholed section of road just before entering the reserve. Fortunately the mist cleared and gave us an amazing view of the early dawn behind Kamberg as we headed toward the escarpment.
The 4WD arrived on time and we were joined by 3 young Australians for the drive up to the hide. 2 buckets of meat and bones were supplied to put out for the birds. A group of White-necked Ravens and Red-winged Starlings were soon feeding but there was little sign of vultures. A Yellow-billed Kite was the first raptor to put on a show before landing to feed. A juvenile Bearded Vulture made a single pass while I was out of the hide putting out some more bones and then another Bearded and group of Cape Vultures was seen by one of the Aussies who was sitting outside of the hide and we managed a couple of distant flight shots but they didn’t land probably due the visible human presence. A Jackal buzzard then arrived and few off with a large chunk of meat and bone before returning for another chunk. We had a few more Kites arrive and episodic fly pasts by one adult and one juvenile Bearded vulture before the 4WD arrived for the Aussies who had requested and early pick-up. Edin and I then had the hide to ourselves and enjoyed some magnificent opportunities on dogfighting kites against the awesome background of distant blue escarpment and velvet green hills. Our requested ride back down the hill failed to materialise so after spending a couple of hours with the kites, following a Malachite Sunbird between protea flowers, seeing a Jackal and Reedbuck we decided to trek down from the mountain. We were rewarded with some lovely landscape images as we well a Baboon troop sighting and additional bird opportunities. We got back to our car just as a massive thunderstorm broke over the escarpment with huge bolts of lightening causing thunder to roll and echo through the mountains followed by a deluge of rain with some hail.  We only made it back after the office had closed so left the key to the hide in the mountain register box and hoped the man who had driven up the mountain didn’t lose too much sleep when he finally remembered taking 5 people up but only bringing 3 down!
Despite no vulture landings it was a fantastic experience with some great images to remember it by.