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 the greater Kruger area to the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, one of the premier big game areas in southern Africa. We spend three nights in the Timbavati before traversing south via the Blyde River Canyon and southwards to the grasslands of Mpumalanga Province and on to the small village of Wakkerstroom. 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. We then head southwards to the coastal scarp forests of Ongoye and Dhlinza before heading 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 on to Cape Town, Western Cape Province. The group will overnight in Cape Town before departing on a pelagic birdwatching trip out of Simons Town. A further day will be spent at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, as well as at False Bay Nature Reserve, before departing for the Overberg region, where we will visit the African Penguin colony at Stony Point and Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens. We will continue on to Hermanus, which will be our base as we explore several birding sites in the area before heading out to the vast open areas of the Tankwa Karoo. The group will travel back to Cape Town and on to an expected evening departure on an international flight departing South Africa.
