SANParks.org Forums

Hello Everyone

Here is some news about the 2007 West Rand Honorary Ranger Kruger Park Birding Weekend, which as usual takes place over the last weekend in January.

For those of you who don't know it, it really is a fun weekend of camaraderie between birders from across the country, and whether you're a serious birder, or a keen novice, it's a not to be missed event. It's regarded as one of the highlights on the birding calendar.

For the first time, we'll be trying an extra weekend for some of the camps to hopefully satisfy all you northern-Kruger-lovers out there, who aren't able to get a booking at camps like Punda, over the normal weekend, due to the heavy demand for places .

The first Weekend will be from Wednesday 24th-Sunday 28th January, for the same 13 camps that we held it at this year (Berg-en-Dal, Croc Bridge, Lower Sabie, Letaba, Mopani, Olifants, Orpen, Pretoriuskop, Punda, Satara, Shingwedzi, Skukuza and Talamati),
and the second from Wednesday 31st January-Sunday 4th February, for Bateleur, Punda (again), Satara (again), Sirheni and Shingwedzi (again).

We're not sure yet, but we're hoping to open bookings in early June - and these will once again be on a first-come-first-served basis. The reason for being unsure about when it opens, is that bookings are going to be totally electronic this year, and we still have a few tests to run to prove that we are as clever as we think we are!!! We hope the turnaround time between you making the booking and you getting confirmation, will be a few days at most, and so alleviate the long delays some of you had in the past, before having your bookings confirmed.

We'll be sending wake-up calls to everyone we have an E-mail address for, in the next week or so, but if we don't have an E-mail address for you, and you'd like to be added to this wake-up call, please PM me your name and E-mail address, and also details of anyone you know who might be interested in hearing about it. This information will form a database we're building, and you'll then be informed electronically of ALL events that we run in the future.
Due to the huge amount of time that fax or telephone bookings take, we will only make bookings using these, if guests don't have access to an E-mail address.

The cost is once again fantastic value at R990 per person for the Weekend, which hopefully includes a birding expert in each camp, 2 nights accommodation (Friday and Saturday), 2 lavish catered meals, 10 hours of game drives during both day and night, and where possible, on management roads, where the public would not normally be allowd to go PLUS prizes and give aways.
As always, it's cheaper than staying at home!! .

For those interested, results for all the camps for the 2006 event have been posted here.

While I'm on here, we had a really fantastic recce earlier this year for our new Kgalagadi-birding/adventure-in-the-dunes event, and will be holding it for the first time next year from Saturday 17th - Friday 24th March (2007). Not all the details have been worked out yet, so I don't have any further info at this stage, but if you're interested in joining us, let us have your name and E-mail address or keep watching postings on this forum.

I'll be on here fairly regularly to keep you posted on what is happening regarding the bookings, and please feel free to PM me if you need an answer to any question or query.

Totsiens for now
Wiggie

I smell an opportunity here!

Will be interesting to know which forum members will be taking part and where. Here are our details:
Punda Maria: francoisd, Johann, Jakkalsbessie & Bosnimf.

From his posts it looks as if we will meet up with Ranger Piet