Europe, Africa, and the Middle East
On a safari led by a fabulous African, we toured many of the great wildlife reserves in Kenya. We started in Nairobi, then to Samburu and concluded Part 1 in Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley. Cats galore as well as many other animals, babies just born, large and small birds, many building and serving nests, Mount Kenya Safari Club. Too much wildlife and scenic action for one DVD.
This part of our safari starts in Lake Nakuru and proceeds through Lake Naivasha to the Masai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo West and East, and concludes in Malindi where I saw one of the most endangered birds in the world. We concluded the "Big Five" during this part. Flamingos, lions, many kinds of antelopes, rhinos, the difficult-to-see Crab Plover, etc.
In addition to several hundred new birds we saw chimps and mountain gorillas in the wild, a lion in a tree, leopard, etc. Fabulous scenery. One of the great adventures of my life; 8/2004.
A great trip through a fascinating first/third world country. Great infrastructure, scenery and terrific wildlife and birds. This trip included the most impressive Drakensburg Mountains over Sani Pass to independent Lesotho, the Karoo Desert north and east of Capetown with the best wildflowers in years, and a pelagic trip into the Southern Ocean past the Cape of Good Hope; 8/2006
Our main mission was to see the Gray-necked Picathartes or Rockfowl, one of the most sought after bird species and families. I had good views of it almost at dark the first evening after sitting still on a sharp rock for 2 hours. The remainder of our trip was fascinating if rather difficult: terrible roads, rain and just-developing infrastructure. This is not one of my finest but you may find it interesting; 8/2006.
Arabian Peninsula: An exotic part of the world. Dubai was in its maximum construction period, modern to a fault. On the other hand, we felt like we were with Lawrence-of-Arabia. or earlier, during days in Oman. After seeing our main target, the Hypocolius, a mono-specific family the first day, there were plenty of other birds found few other places, 1/2007. Northern Spain: Here our main target was the Wallcreeper, a monotypic family. It is an incredible little bird that makes its living from digging insects out of vertical cliff faces from Spain to the Himalayas. Again we saw other fascinating species including the Lammergeier, which drops carrion bones on rocks to crack open for the marrow, and Alpine Chough, all in the lovely Pyrenees Mountains, 1/2007.
Tanzania Safari, 6-7, 2007: We took our oldest two grandchildren, 15 and 11, on a two week safari in Northern Tanzania. We hit the high spots - Ngorogoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and the Serengeti Plains, saw most of the large mammals and lots of birds.
Extraordinary place. 80 % of the species are endemic. 6 endemic families of birds. The lemurs were wonderful, so different from monkeys, probably because of a lack of predators. The "spiny" forests are well named and feature the most fascinating baobab trees. The people came from Africa and Southeast Asia and have merged incredibly well. The politics do not seem to be racially based. Away from "Tana", the capitol city, it is an attractive country; 10/2009