It was another day with a long two hundred & fifty mile drive from Huambo to Lubango. We left at dawn and stopped after a couple of hours for an en-route breakfast break. It was a largely uneventful six hours drive that wasn't helped by a long stretch of dirt tracks around many miles of tarmac road that was closed off: presumably for resurfacing although it looked like no work was taking place on the road. The only highlight of the drive was a pair of Lanner Falcons.
Lanner Falcon: This is the nominate biarmicus subspecies which occurs from Angola & the South of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kenya & South Africa
Finally, we arrived at the decent looking Casper Resort in the middle of Lubango. Despite the decent appearance there were the usual problems with the slow arrival of meals and also a barely functioning wifi, which was a surprise given it looked an upmarket hotel. After a slow late lunch snack, we left the hotel for the stunning escarpment area at Tundavala. This was easily the best looking location we visited in Angola with some cracking rock formations and the vertical escarpment edge, overlooking a much lower plain. There was a fair bit of light woodland a couple of miles before the escarpment edge. We tried a couple of brief stops before continuing on to the top.
Pale Flycatcher: This was a fairly common species in the woodland. This is the murinus subspecies which occurs from Gabon, Republic of the Congo, & Angola to the South East of South Sudan, West & South Kenya, and South to North East Namibia, North Botswana, West & South Zambia & Zimbabwe
The top of the escarpment included areas of large stone boulders. This was surrounded by larger areas of grassland which is undoubtedly, burnt regularly as that is a national past-time.
Some of the boulders were very attractive
The area was largely open grassland behind the boulder fields and the escarpment
Some areas around the boulders had wild flowers growing, which shows how good the habitat could be if the locals stopped their burning obsession
The road ends by one of the more impressive areas of the escarpment with stunning views over the plains below.
The view from the escarpment over the plain below
The escarpment edge had parties of Bradfield's Swifts and Rock Martins which appeared & as quickly dispersed again
These young girls were chasing each of the tourist groups wanting money for posing for photos
The top endemic that we were looking for this afternoon was the gorgeous Angola Cave-chat. We were glad to quickly see the first of several Angola Cave-chats.
Angola Cave-chat: This monotypic endemic occurs in the rocky caves & gorges of West Angola
Pied Crow: This monotypic species occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Aldabra & the Comoro Islands
Pied Crow: Pied Crows were an erratic, but regular, species that we saw while driving, but this was the first time we had seen them at a Birding site
Wailing Cisticola: This is the namba subspecies which occurs in the highlands of West Angola
Violet-eared Waxbill: This monotypic species occurs from Angola to Namibia, Zambia, South Zimbabwe, Botswana & Northern South Africa
Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax: Yellow-spotted Rock Hyraxes seem to enjoy a lazy life: with some stunning views from their territories and probably a safe life providing they can keep out of sight of large Raptors
Namib Rock Agama: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison for helping to identify a number of the Lizard species from my published photos
We carried on Birding until dusk & it was nice to only have a twenty minute drive back to the Casper Resort.
