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| Tankwa Karoo |
To misquote
the celebrated Australian poet, Banjo Paterson;
‘On the
outer Karoo where the churches are few
And men of religion
are scanty
On a road
never crossed ‘cept by folks that are lost
One Michael
McGee had a shanty’
Now Banjo,
as far as I know, never went to the Karoo region in South Africa so he never
wrote about it. So I am here to tell you that the Tankwa Karoo is an isolated,
vast, arid landscape that is dwarfing. It is a bit of country that, one look
tells you, is hard. The hostess at our guest house in Ceres told us that she
had been to the Tankwa Karoo once and would never go again. Had Paterson
visited he would not find any shanties inhabited by Scots however he would find
homesteads inhabited by some hardy Africaans. They are welcome to it.
It is a
fascinating place to visit but, as is often said, I wouldn’t want to live
there.
It is also
a fantastic place to bird and our one day was never going to be long enough… So
another place to return to!
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| From Ceres we ventured north towards the Tankwa Karoo National Park however we did not get that far but birded the roadside towards the park entrance. We probably traveled c.120km from Ceres. |
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| Southern Masked Weaver male |
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| BIRD OF THE DAY! Pale Chanting Goshawk |
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| Lanner Falcon |
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| Large billed Lark |
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| Large billed Lark |
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| Female Yellow Canary |
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| distant Klipspringer |
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| more Klipspringers |
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| birding in the Tankwa Karoo |
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| Layard's Warbler [aka Tit-babbler] |
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| very poor picture of a Rufous-eared Warbler |
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| Karoo Chat |
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| Sickle winged Chat |
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| Sickle Winged Chat |
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| Karoo Lark |
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| Karoo Lark |
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| Karoo vista |
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| Spike heeled Lark |
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| Spike healed Lark |
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| Karoo Korhan |
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| Karoo Korhan |
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| Ray admiring an Aardvark burrow |
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| Poor pic of a Pririt Batis |
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| Poor pic of a Pririt Batis |
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| Greater Kestrel nesting on a windmill |
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