Flock - Friday 24th

 Friday 24th 

Time came to board our next flight and we joined the queue. The flight was fine and we landed in Johannesburg with a couple of hours to collect our luggage, trek to Terminal B, following the signs to Domestic Flights and check back in for the last leg to Durban. It all went very smoothly and we had well over an hour before boarding for the flight to Durban. We actually landed nearly 15 minutes early, collected our luggage, stopped for a drink while deciding what to do. We chose to find a taxi driver, negotiate a price and get him to take us to Botanical Gardens for a few hours for the morning. As we came out there was a line of taxis, we chose a pleasant looking one holding an accredited taxi driver sign. He quoted 900R for the morning, so we accepted, loaded up the car and set off. The gardens turned out to be free, so we wandered around birding as we went. There was a pond in front of the centre with water lilies and several dragonflies.

It was very hot, but there was lots of shade. There was a large, flattish area with a pond which held a large colony of breeding Sacred Ibis and Black-necked Herons, it also has some very wet areas an another small pond, with Egyptian Geese and a a small field near the back of the ‘allotments’ held flocks of *** a chat, Cape Wagtails among other things, and there were loads of dragonflies and butterflies, mostly Southern Banded Groundling and Blue Pansy but there were several others that we need to identify.

There was a terrapin gliding through the water and a family of Egyptian Geese resting on the water’s edge.

 In the greenery some Red Bishops flitted around and there were several nests in the Weaver colony.

We meandered around and climbed gently up through some trees which gave other birds like ****

Then we slowly made our way down to the reception area where a ‘pop up’ trolley gave us toasted sandwiches, hotdog and various cold drinks. Our driver was there so we offered him an iced coffee, before we got back into the car and headed to the airport. A lovely break from all the travelling.

The check in for the Musica went pretty smoothly, apart from a very thoughtful man insisting that I took a much lower, goods entrance and then the lift up, I couldn’t tell anyone as they had gone up the gangplank before I could tell them.  However, the desk could tell David I was onboard so it was a matter of finding me. I made my way to my cabin as the most likely point of contact and it wasn’t long before we were in. We settled in and then went on deck, seeing an Osprey and some very happy people on a small boat. We had to go through the mandatory safest drill, go to muster stations and scan our cabin cards during which time the boat began moving out into harbour mouth and on our way. The decision had been taken to leave early which meant we had a few more hours daylight at sea.

There wasn’t much on the way out and as we sailed south we had a few birds, mainly Cory’s and Black-winged Shearwaters, but we were lucky enough to see a Tropical Shearwater, although fairly distant. Several people were also scanning in the warm weather.

We stayed until nearly dark, met up with Jake and Ian before a quick shower and hair wash and then down to dinner. We coincided with the end of a lecture, so there was a bit of a queue before being seated and choosing our meals. Afterwards we headed back and I changed and crashed out after a very long and tiring 36 hours.