On this 13 day Eastern South Africa birdwatching trip, we travel through the bird rich eastern reaches of the country, visiting four of South Africa’s nine biomes, namely the Savannah, Forest, Grassland and Indian Ocean Belt biomes in the search for birds.
The tour starts in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province with the departure from O.R. Tambo International Airport from where we will travel northwards, to the famous Zaagkuildrift area. We will bird this area before departing for the Afromontane forests of Magoebaskloof, Limpopo Province, visiting key birding sites on the way. From here we will drop down off the escarpment into the Lowveld region of Limpopo and on to Kruger National Park, one of the premier big game areas in southern Africa. We spend three nights in the national park before traversing south via the Blyde River Canyon and on to the grasslands of Mpumalanga Province where we will base ourselves in the small village of Wakkerstroom. We spend two days exploring the grasslands and wetlands surrounding Wakkerstroom in search for some of South Africa’s most sought after bird species.
Following on from Wakkerstroom we travel south eastwards to the sub- tropical province of KwaZulu-Natal and to the famous iSimangaliso Wetland Reserve, situated in the heart of the Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Biome, and home to some of the best birding on the east coast. After two days in Zululand we head southwards to the coastal scarp forests of Ongoye and Dhlinza before continuing to southern KwaZulu-Natal and on up Sani Pass for some of the high altitude Drakensberg specials. From here we retrace our steps back through the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and travel back to Johannesburg and on to an expected evening departure on an international flight departing South Africa.
