Return to the Cape 2016: The Strange Tale of the Fanie Kloppers

This post is dedicated to my lovely niece Vicky.

There is an amazing array of bird life to be discovered and viewed in South Africa. Our friends, Gill and Roger, who we met in the country two years ago and are here at the moment, are avid "twitchers" and to date have notched up sightings of over 100 species.

The house where we are staying has a magnificent array of plants, shrubs and trees which appear to be a magnet to our feathered friends. Sitting in the Braii room (BBQ to us) at the front of the house, there is a constant coming and going of different varieties. The largest of these is a Helmeted Guineafowl or to give it its Latin name, Numida Meleagris.

It's a strange looking thing with a passing resemblance to a turkey although in the case of this particular bird, it can achieve winged flight! It has a slate grey body which is finely spotted with white. It's head is blue and red and is topped with a helmet. Photos of said bird can be viewed below.

It's not pretty and yet its least endearing feature is its call which is a staccato "kek-kek-kek" most commonly heard between 5 and 6am in the morning when it's sitting on the roof just above our bedroom window! It's quite a surprise that it can actually get onto the roof as it spends the majority of time with its mates, walking up and down the road outside, or foraging for food in the garden

At first viewing, you would wager a King's ransom that this couldn't possibly fly, particularly when there appears to be enough meat on it to provide a Christmas dinner for a big family! All that said, it is a very common sight in South Africa.

But why the title about Fanie Kloppers? Well that's where niece Vicky comes in.

She was down here visiting a friend and they were looking around the shop in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens when Vicky picked up a postcard with this particular bird featured and said, "that's a very funny name for a bird"? At the bottom of the photo was the name Fanie Kloppers. Her friend burst into hysterical laughter and said, "that's not the name of the bird Vicky, it's the name of the photographer"! Fanie Kloppers is a very well known wild life photographer down here.

Needless to say, to us and to Stuart and Terri, Vicky's mum and dad, they will be forever be known as Fanie Kloppers and in fact this year we have introduced a campaign into the Western Cape to try and get this new name adopted! It's far more memorable than Helmeted Guineafowl!

Anyway, the sun continues to shine here on a daily basis and today the temperature has been North of 36 degrees. It's Sarah's last full day with us - she starts the long journey home tomorrow - and our friends, Ann and Paul have gone exploring the Garden Route for a few days. Life continues to be quite blissful although we are ourselves now on the slippery slope to coming home but not before I have completed a few more dispatches.

Thank you for reading.