October 24, We're Tired!!!

We moved to a supposedly quieter room last evening, but the Shell fuel station a block away is open 24 hours, creating lots of noise with loud voices, music, car doors slamming, etc.  Needless to say, we were happy to leave Grahamstown this morning and head toward the Drakensburg Mountains.  It was a LONG, LONG drive, with the last 60 kilometers on a rough gravel road that we hadn't expected.  But the drive was very scenic - and we made it!!  We pulled into Rhodes, at the southern end of the Drakensburgs, about 4:00 and got settled into our comfy accommodations.  I can't quite believe that we spent almost 2 hours watching TV this evening, but it was the semi-finals of the World Cup rugby, with South Africa playing New Zealand.  EVERYONE here (maybe 10 South Africans) were watching it, so we sort of got sucked into the excitement of it all. Unfortunately South Africa lost, 18-20.  Our dinner here tonight was fresh asparagus harvested from the garden earlier in the day, and lamb chops from one of the ranchers up the road.  During our 7+ hour drive today, I couldn't help but notice the contrast between the beauty of the distant mountains and the baren waste of the over-grazed grassland from the road up to the slopes.  We found a couple new birds for the trip, and enjoyed chatting with all of the South Africans here at Walkerbouts Guest House about the birds that can be found in the area.  We really enjoyed talking with two fellows from the Durbin area that have been fly fishing around here for several days catching large Rainbow Trout and native Yellow Fish.  They were also very aware of the birds, with one of them being a rancher that puts out carcasses for the various South African vultures.  Arriving at Rhodes has sort of seemed like the culmination of the trip for me, with a number of highly sought-after birds to be found here.  We'll find out tomorrow if that will hold true for us as we head up the road to the highest pass in South Africa at around 8,000 feet.

Photos are of an interesting plant that was growing up the hill outside of Grahamstown, our first view of The Drakensburgs, White-browed Scrub Robin, female Long-tailed Widowbird, Ant-eating Chat, the gravel road on the way to Rhodes.