Another great weekend trip to Utopia 🙂
We arrived on Friday night; some of the group had arrived earlier and had unpacked and prepared dinner for us. An early night was in order after getting to know one another around the fire.

The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast, we headed out to the kloofs in the Mountain Sanctuary Park. As it was a cloudy morning, we did not stop to have a swim in the rivers swollen from the recent rains, but made our way to xyz gorge. Along the way we stopped to look at the wonderful birdlife in the streams and rocky hillsides. The view of two Verreaux’s eagles hunting above the rocky ledges was a definite highlight!

With the water level in the rivers having risen well above safe levels, we decided not to descend into the kloofs this time. As we were heading back the dark clouds that had been gathering opened up and ensured a hasty trot back to the comfort of a warm fire and a shot of whisky.

The following morning we tackled the trail along the abc river in Utopia, despite the warnings of the clouds. We were well rewarded with over 60 species in the resort, including Black breasted Snake-eagle, Cape grassbird, Striated heron and Black-throated canaries. The sight of a party of Dark-capped bulbuls mobbing a Cape wolf snake made sure we minded where we walked!
Unfortunately the rain set in again and cut our walk short, and causing us to take shelter at the tennis courts