Most people travelling to Machu Picchu take the train; it is almost the only way to access Aguas Calientes (the gateway town just below the ruins) and as such the train companies have a monopoly on transport for tourists and charge accordingly. Luckily for us, during a pre-trip planning session we had stumbled across a travel blog named ‘Along Dusty Roads’ which detailed a full day’s walking route (28 ½ km) along the train tracks, starting just outside the town of Ollanytaytambo. It was a much cheaper option and a chance for a mini adventure. Continue reading
An extreme way to avoid Christmas
I was off again! But, instead of work, this time it would be as a tourist – I was going on holiday! This time round I was headed in a different direction, South West, towards Peru. Continue reading
When the keeper escaped from the zoo
After 10 hard-working months hopping around the globe my time was sadly at an end but, I’d had the experience of a life time. I’d met some amazing people and learnt heaps, both in terms of work skills and about myself. All the fantastic things I’d seen, done and eaten would be nigh on endless if I tried to list them; but I thought I’d just mention a few of the highlights, including those that may not have made it into the blogs. Continue reading
A Massive Baby!
Two days before I flew home I sprang out of bed and bounced around my cottage, because today was the day I’d get to see my favourite species of vulture up close. Unfortunately, for almost three weeks Lindy and I had been stuck in Durban, as the somewhat decrepit project vehicle had ended up spending 2 weeks at the mechanic’s for some much-needed TLC. This meant that there was not enough time to do a final check of our nests before I was due to fly home. But, as luck would have it, Andre Botha − one of the country’s head honchos for birds of prey conservation and the man that put me in touch with Lindy − was organising the processing of a vulture nestling just down the road and invited us along. Continue reading
Face to face with fear
Technology has come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade and despite the obvious disadvantage of people becoming glued to their screens, while their eyes merge together, their thumbs becoming freakishly small and nimble and their ears no longer able to receive sound further than a few feet away, there have been advantages. For conservationists, one of the most useful things to have improved over the last few years has been the camera trap; these wonderful little boxes allow us to take a look, unobtrusively, into an animal’s world. Continue reading
The Greatest Day of the Year
Not only was I incredibly honoured to work on a vulture conservation project, but I would be doing so during International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD), my favourite day of the year – besides my birthday! Continue reading
Death in the bush
The hooded vulture project currently has 10 nests with camera traps in, which we visit once a month to check on and to change batteries and memory cards. One of our nearest nest sites is located at the bottom of the reserve where both Lindy and I live, which meant that when it was time for our monthly visit we had a lovely late morning start at 8am. One particular day began as any other fieldwork day Continue reading
A little place in the sun
A rondavel?
A rondavel?
No matter how many times I said it, I still had no idea what the hell a rondavel was. As it turns out, a rondavel is an adorable round brick cottage. Yes, a round house! The only time I had come across buildings that weren’t square was when I was learning to read at primary school and read books about odd villages with three corners. Continue reading
The Big One: Kruger
The hooded vulture project was extending into the Kruger National Park, one of the largest wildlife reserves on the continent. It’s always exciting surveying new habitats to find nests, but if I’m honest I wasn’t that fussed that it was in Kruger. I don’t know why I had an indifference towards the place; I can only put it down to one of 2 possible reasons. Continue reading
A fat bottomed, flappy eared, long nosed alien!
I was staying in a private reserve known as Wild Rivers which covered 2600 hectares, so it wasn’t massive but we were able to drive around it at any time of the day or night. ‘What animals would you like to see while you’re here?’ I was asked. I hadn’t really wanted to say as I’m not massively interested in the usual animals (giraffe, elephants, kudu etc) and those which I am tend to be nocturnal, elusive and scarce. Continue reading
Vulturing
‘A lot of standing around and checking nothing is creeping up on me’ was pretty much how my role helping out on the K2C hooded vulture project was explained to me. Sounds a tad boring, huh? As it turned out – not in the slightest. Continue reading
The Dark Continent
After a short 15 days in Thailand helping track the ‘pain in the arse’ elongated tortoises, and a brief stint with the King cobra team while Matt wrote a conference presentation, I returned to the UK. Do not fear, dear reader, I wouldn’t be freezing in the English summer for too long, I had made a plan over a year ago so this wouldn’t happen. Continue reading
Down the termite hole and into tortoise land
Matt’s project has 10 study tortoises, 5 males and 5 females, and they all have to be tracked daily. Due to the furnace-like temperatures in the afternoon, the day was split into two tracking slots, 6:30–11am and 4–8pm, – even so, the day started at 28°C. Each tortoise had a transmitter glued to its’ shell, so (theoretically) they should have been easy to find. Continue reading
Out of the frying pan and into Thailand
Earlier in the year a friend of mine, Matt, had told me he was setting up his own wildlife research project in Thailand (yes, I was jealous) and asked if I’d be free to help him out for a bit. Continue reading
Gotcha!
After 2 months of opening and closing the traps, catching water monitors and waging war against bait stealing rats we finally caught a fishing cat! Continue reading
…and the rains came down
As I sat in my little flat with all the electricity turned off and the steady dripping of water leaking through the ceiling, I knew it was going to be great at the study site later. It was nearing the end of April and the first of the rains had arrived. The rain is always joined by thunder and a fantastic amount of lightning. Houses are regularly hit by lightning out here and electrical appliances are fried – not surprising given the ‘interesting’ wiring I’ve seen – hence the reason everything was switched off. In fact, Continue reading
Chicken Wars – Everyday is a holiday
During my school days I used to love public holidays, an extra day off to do nothing was fantastic, but as an adult they’re just a pain in the arse. Sri Lanka is a country with 3 main religions (Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity) and it’s infuriating just how many holidays there are, and they’re definitely not conducive to work. In a space of approximately 6 weeks there have been two Poya (full moon) days, Good Friday, Sinhala and Tamil New Year, a random public holiday day and now May Day. Continue reading
“Gimmie some fin!”
Jeez this place was stunning and SO fancy, I felt like I clearly didn’t belong here. You could see straight through the vast hotel lobby to a decking area with a pool which was over-looking a deserted beach framed by palm trees. The sea was crystal clear and the sun was blazing in the bright blue sky, it was like a picture from one of those pretentious and expensive get-away magazines. I was in Galle, an hour or so south from Colombo and I was in search of exotic sea creatures.
Humans – the worlds worst pollutant
You may remember from way back in November of last year that I mentioned a third study site named Biyagama; it was a patch of wetlands hidden just beyond the perimeter fence of an adjacent industrial estate. After previously having a few of the project’s camera traps moved by local people, we hadn’t been back for fear of any equipment that we may have placed could have been stolen. In order to address this the plan was to conduct an awareness talk with the locals but, until that could be organised we just toddled along to see how the site was doing. Continue reading
Uninvited guests
New accommodation always means new neighbours, they can be loud or keep to themselves, some you invite round and others invite themselves. Sometimes you get that neighbour that just never seems to leave and becomes more like a housemate. I currently have a few of those and there is a distinct language barrier that means the issue cannot be resolved, well I say language, it’s more of a species barrier really. Continue reading
Leaving Footprints 