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South Africa - Eastern Bird Photography Tour (Small Group)

© Drakensberg Rockjumper by Adam Riley
South Africa - Eastern Bird Photography Tour (Small Group) 2025

27 Feb 2025 - 11 Mar 2025 (13 days)

ZAR78,950 - 1 Space Available on this guaranteed departure

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Tour Leader: Quinton Paul Josop

Tour price (Per person): ZAR78,950 * USD4,221 * GBP3,366 * EUR4,062 * AUD6,777

Single Supplement: ZAR7,250 * USD388 * GBP309 * EUR373 * AUD622

Can be linked with:

South Africa - Eastern Bird Photography Tour (Small Group) 2026

31 May 2026 - 12 Jun 2026 (13 days)

ZAR89,950 - Spaces Available

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Tour Leader: David Hoddinott

Tour price (Per person): ZAR89,950 * USD4,809 * GBP3,835 * EUR4,628 * AUD7,722

Single Supplement: ZAR7,500 * USD401 * GBP320 * EUR386 * AUD644

Can be linked with: South Africa - Western Bird Photography Tour (Small Group) 2026

The provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga on South Africa’s eastern seaboard offer up some of the finest photographic opportunities on the continent and boast some of the country’s best birding as well as exceptional mammal viewing. The regions incredible natural diversity, coupled with a modern infrastructure well suited to the needs of the modern traveller, makes travelling here an absolute delight. Focusing on a variety of the country’s very best sites including the endemic-rich mist-belt forests of the Natal Midlands, the lofty peaks of the magnificent Drakensberg and the classic African savanna of the world-renowned Kruger National Park this unique bird photo tour of eastern South Africa offers the very best of southern African photography, birding, and game viewing!

Highlights

  • Spending time exploring Kruger National Park in open air safari vehicles. Kruger is one of Africa’s, and indeed the world’s, largest wildlife havens
  • Enjoy an exhibition of big mammals with the likes of Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, African Wild Dog, African Elephant, African Buffalo, White Rhinoceros, and Southern Giraffe all likely.
  • Visit a dedicated vulture hide offering incredible photo opportunities, where Cape and Bearded Vultures regularly attend
  • Exploring Sani Pass, one of the most dramatic passes in Africa with incredible scenery throughout the day and a plethora of unique endemics to enjoy
  • Opportunities to see and photograph a variety of South Africa’s rarest endemic, near-endemic and range-restricted species including Cape Parrot, Yellow-breasted Pipit, Bush Blackcap, Southern Bald Ibis, Blue Korhaan, Drakensberg Rockjumper, and Gurney’s Sugarbird
  • Excellent chances of seeing the two endemic bird families to Southern Africa – Rockjumpers & Sugarbirds

Please note: these prices are subject to foreign exchange fluctuations.

Top Birds

Cape Parrot; Yellow-breasted Pipit; Bush Blackcap; Southern Bald Ibis; Blue Korhaan; Drakensberg Rockjumper; Gurney’s Sugarbird.

Top Mammals

Lion; Leopard; Cheetah; African Wild Dog; African Elephant; African Buffalo; White Rhinoceros; Southern Giraffe.

Habitats Covered

Mist-belt forest, acacia savanna, high elevation grasslands, mountains, wetlands

Expected Climate

Subtropical and dry, warm to hot. Can be cold to very cold in the early mornings and evenings

Max Group Size

5 with 1 Rockjumper leader

Tour Pace & Walking

UNDEMANDING: This tour is ideal for birders and wildlife enthusiasts of all experience levels. It’s suitable for most mobility levels and offers a relaxed pace, ensuring an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Moderate. Suitable for all photography / birding / wildlife interest levels and most mobility capabilities. Can be a little tiring due to travel distances. Our Bird Photo Tours are a hybrid between our Classic birding tours and dedicated photographic tours. You don’t have to be a professional photographer or have the biggest lens; this is for everyone with an interest in photography and birding. Whether you’re using a bridge camera or the latest body and prime lens, our aims are the same. • These tours are not aimed at seeing the most species possible on the route, rather taking time to photograph key targets and any other interesting species we may find. Naturally, the overall species list will be lower than a comparable birding focused tour. • Whilst we may use blinds, feeders and hide setups on some of these tours, we will not be spending an entire day nor even several hours fixed in one spot. • These tours are suitable for photographers who prefer opportunistic photography over entire days in a hide. • Our leaders will assist in helping everyone secure good photographic opportunities and advise as much as they can on camera setup. However, they are not professional photographic tour leaders.

Accommodation

Good to comfortable.

Ease of Birding

Undemanding, most species provide good visuals. A small number of scarce/rare species.

Photographic Opportunities

Good to very good. Some hides will be visited.

What our clients say about us

Glen Valentine
RH & SH, South Africa 2021

First, compliments to whoever came up with the concept of this tour. It seems unusual, even unique. This was a second choice for us because COVID restrictions postponed our tour to Cape, Kruger, and the Victoria Falls extension. The inclusion of the wine tastings seemed whimsical but it was genius. It’s as if we had 2 different vacations, back-to-back, and both memorable. We suspect that logistics for this tour were especially challenging. Glen was more than up to the task, every booking was right on time and of excellent quality. Rockjumper is a class act! We had some really memorable sightings and wildlife experiences due to Glen’s knowledge and diligence. We also appreciate that besides the birds and big mammals he gave us lots of information on habitat, environmental challenges, and especially for Suna and me, knowledge of plants. We walk around our California neighbourhood and notice all the imported African plants growing in our yards! We felt the timing was good too. It was late spring in the fynbos with many flowers still showing, and we were able to see many migrant birds down from the north.

André Bernon
JT, South Africa 2017

We found our guide, Andre Bernon to be extremely competent at finding and identifying birds. He also had an impressive range of knowledge about other biota, plus extensive knowledge of the local history.

Heinz Ortmann
JH, Cape & Kruger II 2015

Heinz was incredible. His knowledge and personality were wonderful. What a wonderful young man! We had an incredible time.

Gregory de Klerk
WB & BB, South Africa

The lynchpin for our entire experience was the guide - and Greg de Klerk was simply brilliant. He was extremely skilled in knowing where the birds might be, and finding them once we got there. He carefully made sure that we all saw the bird. He was very knowledgeable about bird and mammal behaviour, and shared a lot of information with the tour members. He smoothly handled logistics, is a good driver, and patient with non-nationals who are unfamiliar with South African customs. He has a wonderful sense of humour; and a very warm and outgoing personality, which stimulated good relations between tour members. We would be very excited to go on another Rockjumper trip with him!

Daniel Danckwerts
MW, South Africa 2021

This was our first tailor-made tour. It won't be our last. We had a great time. Dan was an excellent guide, working all the angles to get us our target birds while still covering the area specialties, affording us great looks at birds for which we had only fleeting views on our previous South Africa tour with Rockjumper (which was also great!). Dan was very persistent, which paid off in seeing a good number of very difficult specialty birds that many avid South African birders have not seen. We even had two lifer flufftails in a single day, thanks in part to Doug McCulloch, who took the morning off from his new job to help out with the Red-breasted Flufftail. Thanks, Doug! We could have used one more day in the Joburg area, as there were a few birds that were not accessible within the time frame of the tour. This always happens, though, and I am glad we went from a 6-day to a 10-day tour. This is the reason for the overall rating of 9 rather than 10. Overall, the three of us had a great time on the tour. Thanks for putting it together for us!

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