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Friends of ours from the UK, Mike Richardson and Sarah Winch, were out on a trip tavelling around the western part of South Africa and so we decided to join them for the weekend at the West Coast National Park. We booked ourselves into the Duinepos Chalets there which would be our base for the weekend. As Mike is particularly keen on mammals and reptiles, the plans was to try and find as many of these as possible even although the time of year was not great. His biggest want was a Caracal, an animal we still needed for the challenge as well, but these can be particularly tough, so we didn't hold out too much hope! After meeting up with them on the Friday evening in the park and introducing them to their first braai, it was off to bed and then up early on Saturday morning to head out looking for reptiles. We had quite a successful time in the park picking up a reasonable number of species, given the time of year, and also managed to find Southern African Pygmy Mouse in the morning as well. The rest of the day was spent patrolling the park looking for Caracal without any success, but we did manage to reel in a number of birds and some other mammals as well as a few more reptiles too. A night drive on Sunday didn't produce any Caracal either, but we did have lots of Spotted Eagle Owls.

The next morning had us heading off to another spot where we managed to find a couple more reptile species, but still no Caracal! Back at the chalets, it was time to pack up and check out and, once all of this was done, I suggested we head back to Abrahamskraal Waterhole to try and find African Rail for them - I was of course secretly hoping that we might bump into a Caracal, but I was now really starting to get concerned that we were going to miss it. Arriving at the waterhole and heading into the hide, we weren't in there for 2 minutes when I spotted some movement in the grass, lifted my bins to look at it and was blown away to see a Caracal! Chaos ensued as I tried to get everyone on to it, almost taking off Margaret's nose in the process! Fortunately, everybody was able to see it, but, by the time I got my camera on to it, it had gone to lie down in very long grass and so the photos leave a lot to be desired (although good enough for the challenge...just!). After this huge excitement, it was time for a celebratory lunch at the restaurant in the park before finally saying our good-byes and heading our separate ways. All in all, a very successful weekend...