With it being a long weekend, Margaret and I decided to head off to Hangklip for the weekend. We based ourselves at the self-catering chalets at the Hangklip Hotel arriving there on Friday evening. After dinner, we headed out to do a little frogging finding a small wetland close to our hotel. It was still a little early in the season to really get the huge choruses of frogs, but there were Clicking and Banded Stream Frogs, Cape River Frogs and Flat Cacos present whilst we found a Common Platanna crossing the road on our way back to the hotel.

Saturday morning saw us heading off to a portion of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve in Hangklip. Birding was a little hampered by the strong winds, but most of the usual fynbos species were present. A small pond held a few species of frogs (the same as the last night) and at least we managed to get a few photos of Flat Cacos for my challenge. Turning over rocks and rubbish did not produce too much in the way of reptiles except for a single Herald Snake. We then decided to head off to Rooiels to try and catch up with a few birds for my challenge list. Fortunately, the area seemed to be a little protected from the wind, but it was quite overcast, so the light for photography was not great. However, we had some great interactions with our main target, Cape Rockjumper, here and also found Victorin's Warbler, Cape Sugarbird, Orange-breasted Sunbird, Cape Rock Thrush and Verreaux's Eagles here. A couple of Southern Right Whales playing around just offshore was also a welcome distraction. As we were filling in an atlas card for this pentad as well, we then worked through the residential area trying to pick up a few more species (the pentad that Rooiels falls into is just a sliver of land with the rest of it falling into the sea in False Bay, so the numbers potential is limited) before stopping off at a restaurant for a late lunch. We then headed back towards Hangklip picking up a Small Grey Mongoose along the way and then visited the coastline to pick up a few more species for our atlas card for the Hangklip pentad (again, just a sliver of land with most of the pentad falling into False Bay). It was then back to the hotel to prepare dinner and start downloading photos.

Early on Sunday morning, our friends Cliff and Suretha Dorse arrived to join us for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, a cold front had moved in and it was bucketing down, so we were forced to spend the first few hours indoors just sitting around and talking nonsense. When it eventually stopped raining, we headed out to a small rocky ridge and the first rock that was turned over held a Herald Snake and 3 Common Egg-eaters. The next rock held a few more Common Egg-eaters. We were really starting to get excited when the heavens opened again and we had to run for cover! We then took a drive through to Pringle Bay and spent some time driving around the town trying to add a few more birds to our atlas card and jumping out of the car every now and again when it stopped raining to see if we could find anything. Despite the many De Villiers' Moss Frogs and Sand Rain Frogs calling around us, we were unable to actually locate any in the thick restios and eventually gave up and headed off to lunch at a restaurant in Pringle Bay. After lunch, it had cleared up a little, so we headed back out to a patch of open veld to see what we could find. Mammal highlight here was a single Smith's Red Rock Rabbit that we flushed. It all happened so quickly that I never even managed to get a photo of the beast! We were also lucky to find a Banded Stream Frog jumping around and then, after quite some time, Cliff lucked out and found a cracking little De Villier's Moss Frog. These tiny frogs which live at the base of thick restios are incredibly difficult to find but Cliff and Suretha seem to have been blessed with the ability to actually almost always find them. I know what a skill this is because my attempts at finding them have almost always proved fruitless! After spending some time photographing this beautiful little frog, we headed off to an area near the lighthouse. With the time of year being good for herping and frogging at the moment, I am really enjoying putting in the effort to find some of these things for my challenge list. I know that I will pick up many of the birds along the way and will also start concentrating on the birds later in the year when it is a better time to find them but, for now, it is good to put the effort in for the reptiles and frogs. The rest of the afternoon was spent in this general area where we found loads of Cape Girdled Lizards and Marbled Leaf-toed Geckos as well as a couple of Olive House Snakes and a single Common Slug-eater. Back at the hotel, we enjoyed a good braai before heading out for some more frogging which didn't turn up anything new.

Monday morning saw us heading back to the area around the lighthouse and finding most of the same things as yesterday with the addition of a single Cape Legless Skink and a few Southern Rock Agamas. A Subantarctic Skua flying along the coastline was a welcome addition to the atlas card (and produced an out of range form when we submitted the card!) whilst we also added a few more coastal species to the list. It was then time to head back for brunch and then to pack up and book out of the hotel. One last stop at a rocky ridge produced another Smith's Red Rock Rabbit (just as quick as yesterday's one and again no photo!!) and several more snakes, most of the same species we had already found with the addition of a cracking Spotted House Snake, a rather rare animal in the area and one that I was a little doubtful of actually finding within my challenge area. All in all, it was a great weekend adding quite a few species to my challenge list as well as a photographic lifer for me in the form of De Villiers' Moss Frog and Margaret getting 2 frog lifers (De Villiers' Moss Frog and Flat Caco) and 2 reptile lifers (Common Egg-eater and Spotted House Snake).