Community Bird Guide
Christopher Nethonze
Operating Areas:
Golwe Campsite, Gundani
Contact details:
Mobile: +27 (0)76 302 9383
Email: chrisneth@vodamail.co.za
Note that Christopher doesn’t have phone signal at home, and that any guiding should be organized in advance.
More about the guide:
Christopher Nethonze is based in Venda and guides birders through the Golwe Vhurivhuri and Gundani areas. Golwe Picnic and Campsite is situated in a secluded valley in Venda off the Masisi Road. The site is rural and tranquil, an ideal place to get-away to with campsites and comfortable safari tents available.
Bird watching is good in and around the campsite with African Broadbill, Pink-throated Twinspot, Narina Trogon, Grey Waxbill, Scaly-throated Honeyguide and Crowned Hornbill being seen often. Chris is the manager of the campsites and is probably the country’s expert on locating African Broadbill. He has been monitoring each of the pairs along his stretch of river for several years and knows the location of each nest site.
Marked circular trails lead from the campsite up the valley and to a waterfall and the campsite offers a convenient base from which to visit Mpaphuli Cycad Reserve, Makhuya Park and the Gundani Brachystegia Woodland. Further along in the unexplored hills of northern Venda, the Gundani campsite is a real gem, being situated in one of the only patches of Miombo (Brachystegia) woodland in South Africa with specials like White-breasted Cuckooshrike and Southern Hyliota.
The nearby Sagole Baobab has been recorded as the largest in the world and has been the site of the impressive Mottled Spinetail roosting site. Christopher won an Owl Award in 2012 for his contribution to avian conservation and education through the Mottled Spinetail Conservation and Education Project in Sagole as well as the Birds in Trees Project in the Venda area.
