10 June 2019: On the (Wrong) Road Again

Never trust a GPS, especially if it has a sexy female voice enticing you down an unknown road. How was I to know that there are two Himevilles in Kwazulu-Natal, situated about 30 km from one another? The quaint English hamlet of Himeville is reached via a beautiful tar road from Underberg. The other Himeville is a very small rural village, high in the Natal midlands, reached by a 60 km dirt road from hell. Yours truly trusted the female voice that was (again) leading me astray. Never, ever, trust a female voice that says “recalculating… recalculating… recalculating.” She is not recalculating anything; her devious electronic mind is calculating how to lead you down the wrong road – when will I ever learn?

Frozen Stream, Sani Pass

So, after inadvertently taking the night-time scenic route through the Natal midlands, I arrived at the Backpackers below Sani Pass at about 21h00. After vegetating at home for nearly two weeks, I had decided to bird the Drakensberg and Northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Sani Pass

The next morning I reported to the South African border post below Sani Pass with my revolver in my hand, as I did not want to be arrested for smuggling firearms into a foreign country. To my horror, while handing my revolver to the duty policeman, I realised that I had left my firearm license at home. A very awkward half-hour in the office of the station commander followed, which eventually saw me heading back down to the Sani Pass Hotel where I handed in my firearm for safe keeping. It was late morning before I finally reached the spectacular switchbacks at the top of the pass. I ticked the Drakensberg Rockjumper and Sentinel Rock Thrush just below the Lesotho border post, which left me with three more target birds to find in Lesotho.

Drakensberg Rockjumper, Sani Pass

While constantly scanning the skies for a Bearded Vulture, I found a pair of Ground Woodpeckers sunning themselves high on a rocky outcrop, some 20 km into Lesotho. Target number three was ticked! A covey of Grey-winged Francolins flew over the road while on my way to the Sani Top Chalet for lunch and a well-earned beer. Lady luck (why is this another female?) smiled upon me as I stood on the veranda. A magnificent Bearded Vulture flew past, and target number four was in the box. Five minutes later I spished up target number five in a bush behind the chalet – the Drakensberg Siskin. That evening I camped near Bulwer, slowly birding my way up to northern Kwazulu-Natal.

Drakensberg Siskin, Sani Pass