In August 2012 I got to visit Giant's Castle - it was just after the amazing experience in which we had snow in most (if not all) of the 9 provinces in South Africa. It was rather cold with all the snow on the mountain tops but the birding was awesome:
One of the highlights was sneaking up on a pair of Ground Woodpeckers on one of the trails. It took about 20 minutes to slowly work my way close to the birds to get these shots:
A great spot for birding is among the chalets not far from the restaurant - where there is a little forest patch:
The Sugarbirds and Sunbirds were out in full force:
A great disappointment of the trip was not being able to visit the Lammergeier Bird Hide - you have to book it out months in advance and it was already booked - but we had numerous sightings of Bearded Vulture - including some sub-adults:
There was also sightings of Cape Vulture, Jackal Buzzard and Southern Bald Ibis:
A highlight was seeing a male Olive Woodpecker for the first time, I had previously seen and photographed females but never seen a male:
Here are some scenery shots that hopefully do justice to the splendour of the spot (starting with three pics of the drive to the resort):
On one of the afternoons we walked to the Main Caves and enjoyed the guided tour of the rock art paintings:
