South
Africa - a trip taken by Roy and Pat Beckemeyer in January 2005
A Web Page by Roy Beckemeyer - Last Updated 21 Feb. 2005
Upper right: A map made using USGS Global GIS Database: Digital
Atlas of Africa and the ESRI ArcView Software Package. Sites visited are
shown as red X's, and were plotted by inputting a dbf file of lat/long data
taken in the field using a Garmin etrex Vista GPS.
Left:
A map showing our route to Africa - a long trip! We left Jan. 21 from
Wichita, KS, on Delta. Stayed overnight in Atlanta (to give us time for
connections in the event of bad weather), then left on South African Airways (an
Airbus A340-600 4 engine widebody). About 8 hours to Sal Island in the
Cape Verde Islands off Africa; an hour and a half on the ground in Sal Island;
another 8 hours or so to Cape Town, SA; an hour on the ground followed by about
2 hours to Johannesburg, SA. There we went through customs, then
boarded a British Airways 737 for an hour flight to Durban, where we were met by
our guide, Martin Benadie (an employee of Peter Lawson Birding Tours). Our
itinerary: 2 weeks in KwaZulu-Natal (finishing in Mpumalanga) for birdwatching,
big game photography, dragonfly photography and collecting, and searching for
the "Harebell of Africa", Dierama, a plant which we hoped to find in
bloom, though it was near the end of its season. Then a week at the
"Fossils X3", international congress on fossil insects, arthropods,
and amber.
Right: A "Hammerkop" flying over in the high
grassveldt near Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga. Photgraphed with a hand-held
Nikon D-100 with a manual focus 500 mm Nikon telephoto lens.
Left: A view out the plane window at the coast of Africa near
Cape Town.
Right: The lovely view (including the Indian Ocean) out the
window of our room at "Aberdale Manor" in Scottburgh.
Below left: Our vehicle for the next fortnight - a VW
Microbus.
Below
right: One of our first butterflies: a danaid of the genus Amauris,
probably albimaculata, the "Layman" (for butterflies of SA, see
the book: Field Guide Butterflies of South Africa" by Ivor Migdoll, Struik
Publishers, Cape Town, for other books of interest, see the South
African Nature Bibliography).
Below
left: A peek at the upperside of this butterfly (not a very good photo, but it
shows the pattern quite well in spite of not being sharply focused).
Right:
A view of the forest vegetation as we climb up to the west from the coastal
area. This location is at about 30º17.25'S and 30º36.83'E and is at 238
m elevation (per GPS). This area was reached after passing through much
sugar cane, which replaces the natural vegetation over much of the area.
Below right: A small stream amidst the trees. Along this
stream was a pair of gomphid dragonflies mating. A small coenagrionid
damselfly was also around
.
Left below: The dragonflies, Gomphidae: Paragomphus cognatus,
(Riffle Hooktail), in copula.
South
Africa - a trip taken by Roy and Pat Beckemeyer in January 2005
Left:
A map showing our route to Africa - a long trip! We left Jan. 21 from
Wichita, KS, on Delta. Stayed overnight in Atlanta (to give us time for
connections in the event of bad weather), then left on South African Airways (an
Airbus A340-600 4 engine widebody). About 8 hours to Sal Island in the
Cape Verde Islands off Africa; an hour and a half on the ground in Sal Island;
another 8 hours or so to Cape Town, SA; an hour on the ground followed by about
2 hours to Johannesburg, SA. There we went through customs, then
boarded a British Airways 737 for an hour flight to Durban, where we were met by
our guide, Martin Benadie (an employee of Peter Lawson Birding Tours). Our
itinerary: 2 weeks in KwaZulu-Natal (finishing in Mpumalanga) for birdwatching,
big game photography, dragonfly photography and collecting, and searching for
the "Harebell of Africa", Dierama, a plant which we hoped to find in
bloom, though it was near the end of its season. Then a week at the
"Fossils X3", international congress on fossil insects, arthropods,
and amber.
Below
right: One of our first butterflies: a danaid of the genus Amauris,
probably albimaculata, the "Layman" (for butterflies of SA, see
the book: Field Guide Butterflies of South Africa" by Ivor Migdoll, Struik
Publishers, Cape Town, for other books of interest, see the South
African Nature Bibliography).
Right:
A view of the forest vegetation as we climb up to the west from the coastal
area. This location is at about 30º17.25'S and 30º36.83'E and is at 238
m elevation (per GPS). This area was reached after passing through much
sugar cane, which replaces the natural vegetation over much of the area.
.