Seeing a Sun Dog

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Geo: -26.153, 27.8657

This morning I met Paul's friend Lindin, who came over for a visit. We were all called outside by Paul's parents to see something strange. It was called a 'sundog'. It looked like a double round rainbow that went around the sun. It was an amazing sight. I had never seen one before. At first the rainbow colours were quite bright and then it slowly faded. We had a look on the internet and the TV. The news reports were calling it an infrequent phenomenon. It was only visible in Johannesburg. People who were interviewed on the TV gave a variety of responses to their interpretation of its appearance.

The three of us then went for a drive to one of the ponds in the estate. Here we saw water lilies, many tadpoles, Red Bishops and Yellow Masked Weavers. The tadpoles were coming up for air in groups. Another strange sight for me today!

Next place for the day were the botanical gardens. In the pond we saw a terrapin and a frog- which was hard to spot among the slimy green plants. We walked to the waterfall and then Paul decided that we should climb to the top of the adjoining ridge. That sounded like hard work and no fun to me. Sure enough after a few minutes I was complaining that my knees were hurting. I hadn't exercised much lately (or ever) and I was suffering. Paul then told me that we were half way. This sounded like good news to me. Then a minute later we reached the top. I forgave him for lying and was glad that the uphill walk was over.

From here we could see the whole surrounding area, including his parent's estate and the botanical gardens. There were two colourful agamas that were happy to pose for us as we snapped away and took lots of photos. We walked down and had a cold drink break at the cafe. Nearby there was one of the garden's many tortoises munching away on grass.

On our way back to the car we stopped in at the Sasol Hide to see what was happening. It was just the usual crowd- Red Bishop, Yellow Masked Weaver and Hadeda. Just outside of the hide I saw some friendly butterflies and took some great close shots of them. Another nice day out at the gardens in the gorgeous weather.

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Photos

01 Sun Dog
The Sun Dog as we saw it from the backyard.

02 Sun Dog
Part of the two rainbow rings around the sun.

03 Sun and Dog
Part of the sun and the sun dog.

04 Hiding Behind the Branch
The sun hiding behind the branch.

05 Pond
The pond in the estate with lots of lily pads and a few flowers.

06 Tadpoles
Tadpoles coming up for air in groups.

07 Tadpoles
Tadpoles in the pond coming up for air.

08 Red Bishop
A side view of a Red Bishop sitting on a dried reed head.

09 Red Bishop
The Red Bishop looking down at something below.

10 Sitting
Another Red Bishop sitting on a branch.

11 Tadpoles
Lots of tadpoles coming up for air.

12 Birds
A Red Bishop and a Masked Weaver sitting on a blade of grass.

13 Red Bishop
A Red Bishop staring out at the world.

14 Terrapin
A terrapin swimming in the murky, water full of plants.

15 Camouflaged
A frog is camouflaged amongst the plants in the pond.

16 Locust
A red and black locust.

17 Locust
This locust is a green one.

18 Agama
An insect eating reptile at the top of the waterfall ridge.

19 Posing
This colourful agama enjoyed posing for us as we snapped away.

20 Steps
At the end of the path to reach the top we walked up these steps.

21 From Above
The view of the Botanical Gardens from the top of the waterfall.