One very full day was passed at the lovely bungalow in the Arboretum, outside Toleara, where an amateur Swiss botanist collected and planted almost 1,000 species of exotic plants from southwestern Madagascar. With dripping water faucets, and surrounded by native dry forest, the site is excellent for birding as well as night walks. At night … Click to View Photos & Read More →
After leaving Ankarafantsika and reconnecting for 3 days with the capital, Antananarivo, I met with my new driver, Miary, and headed south for the longest loop of my visit to Madagascar. I was somewhat incapacitated for a couple of days in Tana from a lower intestinal bug (probably virus), but recovered sufficiently to continue my … Click to View Photos & Read More →
My private car and driver picked me up Sept. 22 from my lodging at the Sakamanga in Tana at 7am for the 8 1/2 hour drive north to Ankarafantsika National Park, my first adventure in Madagascar. The park is large, consisting of dry thorn forest in gently rolling hills near the Northwest coast of the … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I am at the beginning of a 3 month visit to Madagascar and Kenya for wildlife and bird photography. After leaving my house in Tucson I endured four flight legs and one long taxi ride, covering 30+ hours, to get to my hotel in downtown Nairobi (my return trip is scheduled to be 4 hours … Click to View Photos & Read More →
From Dolores Colorado I headed north to Green River Utah, where I have been a number of times to visit the Barrier Canyon rock art which many consider the best pictographs in North America. These include many eerie life-size paintings, mostly in red and white, of human figures, generally without limbs as if in death … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported from the Verde Valley in central Arizona. From there I traveled north, ascending the Mogollon Rim to Flagstaff and onward through Waputki National Monument, the Navajo Reservation with Navajo National Monument and Monument Valley (all of which I have visited many times), and across the San Juan River to one of my … Click to View Photos & Read More →
My trip commenced April 4 with a long 9 hour drive from Tucson to the town of Van Horn in West Texas, which sits between 3 National Parks; Big Bend, well to the south, and Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns to the north. The first evening I cracked a tooth while munching on popcorn; I … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported on travel through southern Australia, from the Nullarbor Plains to Victoria. My final morning in Chiltern I drove again to two of the better sites, the ponds which had a lovely Yellow-billed Spoonbill and the forest where I had located one of the Regent Honeyeaters nests – never enough photos of the … Click to View Photos & Read More →
On Saturday, Oct. 14, I departed Esperance to drive north and then east across the great and daunting Nullarbor Plain to enter South Australia. The first day I drove the section of road called the longest straight highway in the country – probably the world; for 147kms (92 miles) the two lane Eyre Highway runs … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported from Jurien Bay, just north of Perth; since then I have traveled on south to the cape, through the wine regions, tall tree forests, and a number of mountainous national parks. On the drive south to Perth I stopped for a large flock of Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos, a threatened species. I must … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported from Broome where, for the second time, I had to go to a McDonalds in order to find internet with broad enough band-width to upload my photos. Internet just is not generally available at the caravan parks or restaurants outside the southeast coast, and when available, dreadfully slow or limited to a … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I currently am writing this from Broome, on the north-west coast of Western Australia. I last reported on Darwin and Kakadu upon my arrival in Katherine, located in the middle of the Northern Territory, at the cross-roads to travel north, south or west, with the branch going east cutting off further south. Although I found … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I departed Tucson on August 12. From locking my front door on Saturday afternoon to checking into my hotel in Darwin in the Northern Territory on Monday afternoon the journey consisted of a grueling 30 hours of travel, but included a day entirely skipped from crossing the international dateline. Each of the three flights was … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported from Salamanca, where I spent 6 days eating and drinking too much. I traveled by train on Wednesday north through Valladolid, and then on to Santander on the northern Atlantic coast. From there I took a local bus the short distance south into the mountains to the tiny hamlet of Puente Viesgo. … Click to View Photos & Read More →
I last reported from Merida, one of the great ancient Roman cities of Spain with the best preserved structures. From Merida last Sunday I traveled north to Caceres in Extremadura, the region which was home to most of the best known Conquistadores of the New World. Caceres preserves what is known as the Monumental City, … Click to View Photos & Read More →