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Tours:
1) Intimate Reptile Tour:
The Intimate South African Reptile Experience
These tours are designed for one or two people who desire to get up close to some of South Africa’s most exciting reptiles. The tours are tailored to your individual requirements, and you will be personally guided and assisted by Dr Tony Phelps, the acclaimed professional herpetologist and photographer.
The two day tour is based in Oudtshoorn the quiet capital of the Little Karoo surrounded by dramatic mountains but nestled in sandfeld fynbos and aloe rich semi-desert. Here you will find tortoises, geckos, puff adder, boomslang, and cape cobra; while up in the mountains crag lizards, skinks, berg adder, and the rare red adder are found.
The course is designed to your particular wants, and will probably represent just a part of your visit to South Africa. There will be opportunities to learn how to handle and deal with venomous snakes if you so wish. You will also be shown how to sample data; measuring, scale-counting, and extracting DNA. There will be plenty of opportunities for photography. You may wish to eat out at a nice restaurant in the evening; but there will also be good occasion for night cruising for nocturnal reptiles.
Although the landscape is rugged and beautiful, it is well with the capabilities of a person of average fitness. You will need good boots, and sun block, and note that the Little Karoo is non-malarial. Bring binoculars, and plenty of film and/or compact flash cards. |
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2) Reptile Observation and Photographic Tour:
The Overberg & Little Karoo
The Cape Reptile Institute offers a ten day tour Observing and photographing reptiles in the Overberg and the Little Karoo.
The tour is led by Dr Tony Phelps, the world renown reptile ecologist, photographer and author. Groups are kept small, with a maximum of four people, assuring that each receive the appropriate individual attention.
The Overberg and Little Karoo lie within the Western Cape, a beautiful rugged land featuring startling coastal dunes, tortuous mountain passes and a whole variety in between. Here you will find puff adder and Cape cobra, but also endemic geckos and tortoises.
The Tour
Looking for reptiles is not a rushed affair, and activities will be paced accordingly. However, a good area and a variety of habitats will be covered.
On the first day there will be a presentation to familiarise everyone with the indigenous reptiles of the areas to be visited. There will also be a brief instruction on emergency first aid. Early on during the tour there will also be an opportunity for a snake-handling course using Boomslang, puff adder and Cape cobra.
Health & Safety
The tour is not too strenuous, and although some of the terrain is quite rugged, a person of average fitness will cope very well. The actual danger of snakebite is minimal and is much exaggerated. Common sense is the key word here. Good walking boots are a must. The Western Cape is non-malarial.
Itinerary
| Day 1 |
Depart Cape Town for DeHoop Nature Reserve. Evening road cruise. |
| Day 2 |
DeHoop Nature Reserve Fynbos searching, rock turning, road cruising day and evening. |
| Day 3 |
DeHoop Nature Reserve, herp hunting Dune thicket and limestone fynbos Controlled photography of any captures; road cruise in evening. |
| Day 4 |
DeHoop Nat Reserve, morning road cruise. Depart for Wolverfontein Farm. Arrive Wolverfontain. See www.wolverfontein.com |
| Day 5 |
Wolverfontein and surrounds (i.e. Touwswater reserve) Mountain fynbos searching, road cruise in evening. |
| Day 6 |
Wolverfontein, mountain fynbos and Touwswater reserve. Controlled photography & evening road cruise. |
| Day 7 |
Depart Wolverfontein, early morning for Oudtshoorn. Route 62 road search – Cango Wildlife Ranch (lunch) Captive reptile photography in afternoon (inc Bitis armata/B.rubida). |
| Day 8 |
Depart early morning Swartberg Mts. Via Swartberg Pass. Mountain fynbos search and rock turning. |
| Day 9 |
Reptile hunting Paardebont Game Farm nr Oudtshoorn. Fynbos searching, rock turning. Evening road cruise. |
| Day 10 |
Depart for Cape Town via Route 62. |
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Indigenous Species List
Snakes: Puff Adder (Bitis arietans), Southern Adder (Bitis armata), Berg Adder (Bitis atropos), Cape Cobra (Naja nivea), Coral Snake (Aspedilaps lubricus), Harlequin Snake (Homeroselaps lacteus), Rhombic Skaapstecker (Psammophylax rhombeatus), Herald Snake (Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia), Many-spotted Snake (Amplorhinus multimaculatus), Karoo Whip Snake (Psammophis notostictus), Cross-marked Whip Snake (Psammophis crucifer), Shovel-snout (Prosyma sundevalli), Brown House Snake (Lamprophis capensis), Spotted Rock Snake (Lamprophis guttatus), Brown Water Snake (Lycodonomorphus rufulus), Mole Snake, (Pseudaspis cana), Slug-eater (Duberria lutrix), Rhombic egg-eater (Dasypeltis scabra), Beaked Blind Snake (Rhinotyphlop lalandei), Cape Worm Snake, (Leptotyphlops nigricans).
Lizards: Rock Monitor (Varanus albigularis), Cape Legless Skink (Acontias meleagris), Cape Skink (Trachylepis capensis), Red-sided Skink (Trachylepis homalocephala), Silvery Dwarf Burrowing Skink (Scelotes bipes), Karoo Sandveld Lizard (Nucras livida), Burchell’s Sand Lizard (Pedioplanis burchelli), Namaqua Sand Lizard (Pedioplanis namaquensis), Cape Mountain Lizard (Tropidosaura gularis), Yellow-throated Plated Lizard (Gerrhosaurus flavigularis), Long-tailed Seps (Tetradactylus tetradactylus), Cape Grass Lizard (Chamaesaura anguina), Cape Girdled Lizard (Cordylus cordylus), Graceful Crag Lizard ( Pseudocordylus capensis), Cape Crag Lizard (Pseudocordylus microlepidotus), Southern Rock Agama (Agama atra), Cape Dwarf Chameleon (Bradypodion pumilum), Swartberg Leaf-toed gecko (Afrogecko swartbergensis), Marbled Leaf-toed gecko (Afrogecko porphyreus), Bibron’s Thick-toed gecko (Pachdactylus bibroni), Cape Thick-toed gecko (Pachydactylus capensis), Marico Thick-toed gecko (Pachdactylus mariquensis), Ocellated Thick-toed gecko (Pachdactylus geitje).
Chelonians: Leopard or Mountain Tortoise (Geochelone pardalis), Angulate tortoise (Chersina angulata), Parrot-beaked tortoise (Homopus areolatus), Karoo padloper (Homopus boulengeri), Tent tortoise (Psammobates tentorius), Helmeted terrapin (Pelomedusa subrufa). |
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All enquiries concerning these tours will be directed to the head of the Institute Dr Tony Phelps. |
Funding generated by the Institutes' services are utilized to fund the
Institutes' long term ecological research on a number of vulnerable
species in Southern Africa. |
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