Kloofendal Nature Reserve

This morning I went for a walk around the Kloofendal Nature Reserve.  It was about a 30 minute drive from my apartment, in the same area as the botanical gardens.  It's still winter here and very dry so the terrain still looks the same as when I went to the gardens, but it is a lot warmer!  The high for today is going to be about 28C.  I think this is a bit warmer than usual for this time of year... I hope so anyway, because if this is winter, I'm not really sure what summer is going to be like.

This morning when I first started my walk, I saw something running ahead of me on the path.  I think it was a duiker or something (a small deer looking thing) but it was too fast and I couldn't take a picture.  Unfortunately that was the only animal other than birds and bugs that I saw today.

I spent about two hours walking around the park and exploring.  There were tons of different paths to take and I'm not sure if I came anywhere close to trying them all.  In the middle of the park there was a gated off area because of open mine shafts.  Apparently you can arrange tours to go in, or so said the signs.  This was where the Struben brothers first discovered gold in this area in the 1880s.  

Lots of rules here, particularly no lying down, no wine spilling, no clothes washing, no selling stuff (that's a common sign here), and no crazy music/TV hybrids.

Crazy dry right now, I think the lake is supposed to be much bigger and that you aren't supposed to be able to use the streams as extra walking paths

Some sort of bird, my sneakiest picture of the day.  Most animals were too quick for me (and I was too loud).

More birds, by the lake.  This was taken from inside a bird watching shack the park had set up by the lake.

Fluffs on a tree

View from one of the many trails I walked.

There was also a stage and open area when first entering the park, but I don't know what kind of stuff they do there.  This park wasn't as liberal with the information as the Botanical Gardens were, but this park was free so I'm not complaining.