http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Falc/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Falc en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:55:16 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:55:16 +0000 As I write this it is 320 am on October 23 2008 and I'm in Satellite Beach FL... for another week or so. In so many ways this whirlwind existence of mine would be best wasted on a younger man than I. But here I am as I am now not back when I was that younger man and so it goes. If that last sentence made sense to you seek competent professional psychological counseling.What happened i http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Kaolack-Region/blog-337586.html It has been a very busy couple of months. For those of you interested in more pics please see my Picasa site. Being without a computer of my own it is just too much to be getting them up in multiple places every time...To catch you up St. Louis... not much there but it is greener. Then on north to the Senegal River on the other side is yet another country and passport stamp. We went o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Cape-Verde-Peninsula/Dakar/blog-264511.html Dakar Senegal West Africa Filthy on a good day just blatantly vulgar the rest of the time. The stench can be downright gutwretching at times and in places... and yet somehow the place has its appeal.The locals are an amalgam of tribal leaders the neauveau riche strutting about in their overpriced cars and authentic bling the Euromutts the Sophisticates... all of which collectively c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/blog-238460.html Pictures for this blog are found at httppicasaweb.google.comGyrkinDublinToDakar for the moment as I am on a bytheminute internet connect but wanted to catch y'all up a bit.I conceded to the prodding by a few good friends to not take the overland path after the ParisDakar rally was canceled for the first time ever out of fear of terrorist threat. Instead I gave Royal Air Maroc an ob http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-238142.html The first four are from the visit to Loch Lomond. The rest are from the trip to Glasgow proper. I'll let the images tell the tale. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Glasgow/blog-231573.html Hello beautiful ScotlandThe flight December 26th 2007 was painless a mere 35 minutes later and I was on the ground. We came in late and didn't even see a customs agent. My guitar arrived in good shape without incident and I walked 10 feet out of the baggage area to a familiar voice.Hello Yank It was good to see him a bit pale and sallow in the eyes but standing tall a far cry fr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/The-Highlands/blog-231371.html Greetings from Dublin It's St. Stephen's Day here Boxing Day in the UK and Canada so little is open... but the weather's pleasant leaves still green on the trees. I'll add pictures in a day or two when I'm not posting from a perminute internet connection.The thing most striking so far is that all the signs are in both English and Gaelic... though I've yet to hear anyone speaking the latter http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-230447.html The last entry was nearly ten days ago. I was sitting in the houseboat staring at all the Stuff procrastinating wondering what I should take what I could live without... The trip to Kentucky was pretty much uneventful and the flight to Chicago went well. My guitar was lost found and returned within 24 hours none the worse for the wear. So far so good... almost.My laptop the one I just http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-230276.html As I make the last of the preparations for travel I have to chuckle at the irony. I came to West Texas because I don't care for cold weather except to go there to ski. Now as I prepare to leave the Powers That Be want to make sure I don't lose my resolve.It's as though this is an omen It's 27 degrees at 249 am and still dropping. I've got the space heater going full blast in this 8x16 roo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/El-Paso/blog-227985.html I've finally blogged a catchup from last year's romp through Guinea Mali Senegal. Perhaps one day I'll revisit Europe and Morocco but I think I'd rather look forward with these writings. I'm having a birthday you see one of my own choosing. The rebirth will happen somewhere around the 2nd week in January. But I'm getting a bit ahead of the tale.The ticket is booked Chicago to Dublin on http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Cape-Verde-Peninsula/Dakar/blog-227453.html Note The pictures do not correlate with the story as it's lengthly and I was too absorbed in those situations to take photos. Each photo has its own caption.Preface As I gather thoughts for this it's from a year and a half later after all the roughest parts of the journey are long since past and the emotional memories are all pleasant ones. But I'd be doing you a disservice not to touch on http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/blog-227396.html Mali was rich in its own way. Villagers weren't quite as warm and hospitable in some places but they held to their integrity. In a place where people earn 400 a year I wasn't able to purchase a pup for 100 USD because they follow the traditions of the Bedouin who brought Islam to them. You seem like a very nice man and if you could stay a day or two in the village I'm sure someone would http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-227383.html The trip went on to KanKan and then back west again. Something just wasn't making sense about what the trapper was saying and the way he was guiding me By all accounts these birds were from lowlands so why was he sending me up into the mountains I decided I'd do a bit more scouting before returning to the original gameplan we'd hatched while scouring West Africa via GoogleEarth before I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/blog-227379.html I remained with the trapper and his posse for a short while longer but the promises of arriving before dawn always went unfulfilled. Africa is on a whenever timeclock but the western world does not sync with that. Back in the the States the May 1st 10th deadline was coming up fast and I still hadn't seen even one of these birds. I had to find out where they had gone to. Then I had t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-227374.html To this point things have been pretty tense. Remember this wasn't a leisure trip this was a live safari an expedition to find trap and return with 10 falcons. There was a very limited window afforded by having to please 3 separate governments as well as all of the international laws involved and the date to have the birds in Quarantine back in the States was also set and narrow. While it http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-227372.html Where were we at Oh yeah the overpriced airplane trip to Conakry. Dakar is just barely subSaharan and relatively dry. Guinea is at the beginning of the rainforests and the city itself is a finger jutting out into the ocean. I'm sure it keeps a few people cooler that way... 3 or 4 of them if they turn the air conditioning on.I was greeted by an online acquaintance of the team supposedl http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-227359.html This is a series of catchup blogs of a trip to Senegal Guinea and Mali in search of a small 180 gram falcon that we hoped to bring back to the States for a scientific breeding project. I'll post a few places and pictures recounting the 2month adventure to get y'all caught up before moving on to the current one that begins on Christmas Day 2007.We'll start off the tale in Indianapolis I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Cape-Verde-Peninsula/Dakar/blog-227346.html