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We spent a family weekend together with Margaret's family on a farm just 3km outside of the small village of Elim basing ourselves at the Zoetendal Wine Estate in a self catering guest house there called "Draaihoek". It is situated along the banks of the Nuwejaars River and offered nice views across the river and the surrounding farmlands. As per usual, we did take a few opportunities over the weekend to break away from the family gathering and get out to do some birding and photography. Although it wasn't a hardcore birding or wildlife weekend, we were still pretty satisfied to get to Western Cape rarities on the weekend, African Pied Wagtail and European Roller, the former bird being a fantastic addition to our challenge list. Other very tough to get challenge birds which we managed to connect with on the weekend included Black Stork and African Quailfinch, so all in all, it was not too bad considering it was a family getaway!