Marital bliss is...

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Peter Connan
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Marital bliss is...

Post by Peter Connan »

Hard to find. Because what my family want is to be lazy at the sea, without overheating but also without freezing, and preferably also without getting wet.
While what I want is animals and birds to photograph, peace and quiet and preferably all of this for free, or the closest thing thereto.

But this year we got fairly close. The plan was to go to Maphelane. But we invited some friends, and by the time they had made up their minds not to join us, we couldn't get all the dates we wanted. My leave started on the 13th, and we could stay at Maphelane untill the 21st, whereafter we would move to Phongolo (a place I had visited for about an hour earlier in the year, and who still had space). We wanted to be home for Christmas, as we did not want to leave my mother alone for Christmas this year as my father had passed away earlier this year.

So on Saturday morning the 13th we departed on our advanture. Along the way, we were treated to a glorious sunrise.

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The road was a lot quieter than I had anticipated, excpt for a fair amount of slow traffic after Piet Retief. It was cloudy with intermittent light rin all the way. After leaving the N2 though, the road got progressively worse. The first section is tar, but very badly potholed. Fortunately my car handles these conditions extremely well as it has large tires on small rims and a very robust undercarriage, so we could still make pretty good time. The last 40km is dirt though, and pretty bad at that, a strange undulating road that almost creates seasickness, full of mud pools and winding through a forest.

After a simple and friendly booking-in procedure, we proceded on our search for campsite no. 42. Shortly after arrival, a red duiker came to inspect our camp setup.

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After setting up camp, we went looking for the beach. Maphelane has beautiful, wide and fairly quiet beaches, although we did see a fair number of crabs.

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After a quiet night (except for lots of bird-song and the odd hippo laughing) morning broke cloudy and cool. I soon set off to surround my environs.

Brown-hooded Kingfisher:
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Dark-capped Bulbul:
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"Bungee worm", hanging by a thread:
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A walk along the spit of land between the river and the sea delivered quite a selection of shorebirds.

Common Sandpiper:
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Common Ringed Plover:
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Common Sandpiper:
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White-fronted Plover:
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Grey Plover:
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Common Whimbrel:
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Swift and Caspian Tern:
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Swift Tern:
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Terns, mostly Swift:
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Sandwich Tern:
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Swift Tern:
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Last edited by Peter Connan on Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Toko
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Toko »

Waders and sea birds take flight for you to take amazing photos O:V O:V O:V The greater crested terns are my favs :-)

One can see the yellow soles of the feet on the sandwich tern :shock:

and the crab photo is very special O:V O:V O:V

How big is this camp? Only camping?


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Lisbeth
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Lisbeth »

Lovely choice of seabirds ^Q^ ^Q^ I know that you do not like to put IDs, but at least on those that you know 0/0

What is that long green thingie? O-/

Cute duiker and gorgeous sun rise O/\ O/\


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Toko
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Toko »

The large brown one in flight is a Common Whimbrel :-?

White-fronted Plover for the stocky wader \O


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Lisbeth
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Lisbeth »

And the small one is a white-fronted plover ;-)


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Toko
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Re: Marital bliss is...

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One-legged Sandpiper and Two-legged Sandpiper in flight and a Plover in flight -O-


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Lisbeth
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Lisbeth »

I like this game and would be happy to continue, but it seems that I am without connection @#$


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Richprins
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Richprins »

Very good writing, Peter! O\/ O\/ O\/

And quality shots!

If that tar road is the one from St Lucia, a pity!...it used to be perfect! 0*\


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Mel
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by Mel »

There is not much to say about the quality of your photos - simply awesome!
I really like the crab photos, nice perspective on them. \O


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harrys
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Re: Marital bliss is...

Post by harrys »

Beautiful photos of the birds in flight ^Q^ ^Q^

Never saw a Rooi Duiker before...such a beautiful animal ^Q^

Some really great sunrise shots \O \O


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