Fernwood - Day 4

If anyone ever gets the chance to visit this area you must visit Falcon Ridge. We have been there half a dozen times and never tire of it. Falcon Ridge is a rehab centre for injured raptors and to fund their work they show the birds to the public for R 70 pp. When I say show it is an understatement - they tell you about each bird, how it came to be in rehab and then show you how they hunt. The fish eagle, the owl, the peregrine falcon and occasionally vultures too, although they are more difficult to control since they see red toenails as food and have scared the hell out of some guests. Apparently when the falcon stoops they can reach a speed of 300 km/h before ripping the head off their prey; the owl is totally blind up to half a metre and the fish eagle only occasionally hunts fish, although it is the only raptor that takes fish on the wing.

We always have one retail day and this was it, although I think we may need to change this habit in the future because our visits are too frequent for the shops to have anything new on offer. We did however find a really cool bottle opener in the guise of a crocodile - and Rose added to her rock collection.