The weather forecast looked good today so I got on the phone to the KZN crew to see who was free for a day trip. Google Earth showed a QDS gap inland of Tongaat, south of the Greytown area, and looking at the terrain images there was some nice looking country. These are the mysterious peaks in the Valley of 1000 hills east of Table Mountain and Nagle Dam.

Sandi du Preez and Gill Leisegang were free, so we loaded up Zaddachi and off we went.

I had no idea there was such glorious scenery and wild country, barely an hour from Durban. We saw mammals - a genet, a bushbuck and a black-backed jackal. And 32 species of butterfly. Here are some images (landscapes by Sandi):



The peak in the middle distance is an isolated hill that was being used by some Zulus for a religious ceremony. It's a 1000m high isolated block and looks very much worth a future visit.



This shows some of the awesome crags, grassland and forests in the area.

We found a long ridge with unspoilt afrotemperate forest running along the south slope. There was an unbroken vista of hills running way towards Nagle Dam and Table Mountain; here is a pic Sandi took of me next to the forest:



In the forest we found these beautiful Streptocarpus flowers:



And on the ridge we found a lifer for Sandi and Gill - and something I had been looking for since having a not-so-sure sighting at Hwayi a year ago - Acraea nohara nohara, the Light Red Acraea. I was able to grab a shot, but it made itself scarce as Sandi was lining up on it:



This locality looks very much worth visiting again a bit later in the season when more species are on the wing.