20 Aug, 2007

In stark contrast to the blustering weather out at sea, a swamp forest is a haven of calm and tranquility.

This morning I had grand ideas of finding tiger sharks to film, and headed out to sea towards Aliwal Shoal, in search of award-winning footage.

Unfortunately this was one of those days when nothing goes right and after an impressive aerial manoeuvre in the surf zone I arrived at the reef to find that the visibility was poor. On top of this, a stiff south-westerly wind began to blow which made things very uncomfortable.

So I moved instead to one of my favourite blocks of swamp forest on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The frustration of earlier was forgotten as I sat in the leaf litter, listening to the calls of bulbuls and warblers flitting around in the undergrowth.

The sounds of the birds and the wind in the leaves were soothing.

By the time you watch this clip, the birds may have moved away, but the leaves will still be falling silently onto the soft forest floor. This is a window into this little piece of Eden, today.

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