Shelley Point - views

We stayed at Oystercatcher Lodge at Shelly Point in the Western Cape area of South Africa for a couple of nights. The room had a wonderful view of the ocean from the bed. (Remember to click on the image to get a large view.)

Views from the balcony on the first evening.

Views from the bed on the first morning. Every morning 30,000 cormorants (shags) flew along the coast from their nesting areas to their feeding areas. During the day, mostly in the evening, they all flew back. 1000s of other birds were also there, mainly gulls and oystercatcher birds. From the room we saw lots of dolphins and seals as well.

Shelley Point - Oystercatcher Lodge

View from the road leading the Oystercatcher Lodge. The lodge has six rooms, two of them on the lower level (not seen), four on the middle level together with the eating and lounge areas, as well as the pool. The owners live upstairs. The Lodge is on a small peninsular with 270 degree ocean views.

There are also self-catering rooms in the building to the left of the picture.

Shelley Point - Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama landed at St Helena Bay on the way to India in 1497 (more here). A memorial to him is erected in the middle of the resort/village.

Shelley Point - ocean front views

The tide was low, and we walked along the beach and over the rocks.

Shelley Point - houses

All the houses in the area, an exclusive golf-club resort, were white-washed. Many of them also had thatched roofs. All of them had a 'braai' (barbeque), hence the chimney with every house.

The hotel.

Although all the houses were white, there was still lots of colour besides the blue skies.

Mabalingwe Game Reserve - birds

This weaver bird nest is made by the males in 6 to 8 days. He then gets a female to inspect it; if it meets her approval she occupies it.

A female ostrich - one of the flock grazing alongside the road.

Mabalingwe Game Reserve - rhino

The view when we came around a corner. The reserve has 13 'white' rhino (white is a derivation of the Dutch word for wide, referring to their mouth), and we saw 6 of them together. One of them was a youngster, still sucking from its mum.

The young rhino is at the lower right of the picture.

Mabalingwe Game Reserve - the animals

There were quite a few zebra in the reserve. Hard to get a photo of them, and most animals are side on - often we saw just backsides.

The monkeys (Vervet Monkeys, Blauw Aap) hung around where people gathered. They were very cheeky, and broke into the place we stayed two times to steal fruit. The second time they actually opened an unlatched window!

The kudu is one of the favourite antelopes. This is a female.

The impala - another favourite.

The giraffe - these should be one of the big five or six. They were wonderful to see. On the second tour we saw two of them within a few metres of the vehicle we were in.

Mabalingwe Game Reserve - the lions

Click on picture for a bigger image.

The park has two white lions. These are no different to normal lions, but a genetic variation. The lion arrived soon after the food was put out. When he left after 10 minutes, the lioness appeared - we were told that was a bonus because she had been in a fight with another lioness, and was very nervous.

Time to leave.

Mabalingwe Game Reserve - the environment

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A view of the park from the lion viewing platform. The bush was very lush at this time of the year, making viewing the animals very difficult at times. Half of the park is hilly as can be seen, and half is quite flat - that is where most of the viewing of the animals takes place.

The park had lots of accommodation; we stayed in a three bedroom unit, each with their own bathroom, and a shared kitchen.

The park had a number of pools. This is one near the restaurant. Nina and Marli are at the top.

Breakfast on the last morning. Nina walking off, then Marli, De Wet, Willy, Liza and Kelly. Behind them is the boma where we had a wonderful braai each evening.

These warthogs were a pest. They hung around the chalets, and harassed us a lot. Whilst the neighbours fed them (against the rules) we had to chase them away with chairs.

Both these mothers had piglets with them - I caught them when they were all having a drink.

Canal du Midi - again

The man-made harbour at Castelnaudary.

The set of four locks at Castelnaudary.

A lock downstream from Castelnaudary.

Heading towards Castelnaudary.

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Pyrennes

View across the Pyrennes into Spain.

Cows grazing in the late afternoon shade of the Pyrennean peaks.

One of a few paragliders near the Col de Lers.

A mountain lake.