During our second night in Arniston the wind finally dropped and we woke to a calm sunny day. Unfortunately there were no clouds to make an interesting sky and the sea was still very rough but it was great to take an early walk to the beach to watch the fishermen and look for birds in the vegetation as they had both spent the previous couple of days hunkered down out of the weather. With the rising sun coming up over the Indian Ocean the inland side of the road was perfectly lit for birds and there were a few co-operative canaries and pigeons moving through or flying over but they were at extreme range so needed the full 700mm reach of a 500mm lens plus 1.4x teleconverter in addition to the cropping afforded by the D800 36 megapixel files. It was good to get a couple of birds as I had been looking forward to the area as it is a prime birding region but the weather had really stymied us to that point as we had heard plenty in the bush but seen very little and nothing photographable until this point.

Next stop, Knysna.