Tanzania Dreaming.... or Getting Ahead of Myself A Bit...!

 Well Japan will have to wait for a bit, so onwards with the plan for 2024. It's just over 3 weeks until i'm off to Saudi Arabia for my 3rd trip there. Then it's just over 2 weeks until I do Turkey and Mongolia back-to-back - all great trips and very exciting. I will come back to them in another post. And I really need to lose a bit of weight after the recent Cape Horn cruise first!!

The ever-angry Yemen Warbler from Saudi Arabia...

A gorgeous Oriental Plover from Mongolia

So today i'm a little preoccupied with my trip to Tanzania in July. I've been seeing plenty of great photos posted on Facebook from my guide over there, and it's really whetting the appetite. This isn't going to be the usual safari thing but what people call the Eastern Arc Mountains Tour, a region choc full of endemics and really rare stuff. Well, actually, i'm super-excited about this one and having visited Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, northern Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and a bit of South Africa in the past, there's still a whole bunch of lifers possible. But why does it tantalise the tastebuds so much? Hmmmm.... 

Firstly, it's just an area that's not really one of those places high on birders wish lists of places to visit - and that always draws me for some reason. Secondly, there's a feast of new birds for everyone. Thirdly (and possibly most importantly) it's going to be a bit of an adventure. Ahh yes, adventure in the safest possible terms but it also means the dreaded camping! After doing a Snow Leopard trip in Ladakh years ago I swore I wouldn't be camping ever again! But the lure of some great birds and the passage of time has swept that hatred of camping away. And it's only 6 or 7 nights, we'll be in the mountains so it won't be hot 'n' sweaty, which would drive me mad and we will have a ground crew looking after us. The rest of the time will be spent in much better accommodation. The camping aspect has already put several guys off joining the 4 of us already committed to the trip and it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea. But you gotta suffer for your birds right?! 

Bohm's Bee-eater is a big deal...

Chapin's Apalis 

Rubeho Akalat

Rubeho Warbler

Uluguru Bushshrike

Usambara Thrush

Usambara Weaver

And there really are plenty of cracking birds to look forward to. The photos above show a small sample of what is ahead. Oh, and we've booked a couple of nights on Pemba Island for a few more endemics as well. Our flights are booked, and the East Africa field guide is dusted off and ready. There's still 2 spaces available for anyone who fancies a shed load of lifers, a bit of an adventure and a few laughs along the way. The full itinerary can be viewed here - Eastern Arc Birding Adventure

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia beckons....

POST CRUISE BLUES...!

 It's always the same when I return from a trip, after the jet lag hits and the tiredness dissipates. That anti-climatic feeling. The birding's over. That high. The adrenaline rush of the chase, of finding good birds, of feeding off everyone's excitement at getting a lifer. A bird I've seen a dozen times takes on a whole new meaning entirely when it's a lifer for someone in my group. In fact that feeling is just as good as a lifer for myself. Having ADHD may well increase that feeling for me, I don't really know. My brain works differently to most people's, so I relive these moments over and over and not being able to quieten my brain from racing away with never-ending thoughts makes trying to sleep now a problem. 

So it's just under 5 weeks until I go to Saudi Arabia, so when my ever-patient wife suggests we do the Japan cruise that's been at the back of my mind for a while.... I'm off, checking flights, how far to birding sites from the 7 shore stops, and can I really get up to the north of Okinawa in the time we've got ashore...? And then the realisation of the stupid cost of flights....... Everything comes crashing down again and we have to rethink. I begrudge being ripped off by these greedy airlines...... 

So it's time to breathe and recap on the past month. And what a whirlwind ride it's been. From Hooded Grebe to Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, Antipodean Albatross to Magellanic Plover, Magellanic Woodpecker to White-throated Cachalote, Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross to Ringed Teal, Curve-billed Reedhaunter and more...! But my overriding memory is of those King Penguins at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands.....

So I probably won't go to Japan just yet, but one day.... But don't tell the wife...!