KennyT
Ken Thomas Joined: December 29th 2008
Logged in: December 18th 2009
Logged in: December 18th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Baltra Airport
The end of the line, for now. I’m back under the grey skies of England, far, far away from the warmth of the equator. I have had a marvellous time on the whole trip and I have some fantastic memories of the places I have seen and the people I have shared some time with. The last part of the trip was the part I had been looking forward to all the way round the Southern hemisphere; the Galapagos Islands. I had carried the “Diary of the Beagle” all the way and kept dipping in to the Galapagos pages everywhere I have been. I was supposed to have been on a four week project at the Giant tortoise breeding project on Isabella island, but the powers that be had cancelled the project and so I went ... read more
About to walk the plank
Four weeks in Ecuador and I am one week away from home. I am writing this in my Hostel in Quito, waiting to fly off to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow until I return to Quito on Saturday, This has been an unsettling experience in some ways, Ecuador ties with Mozambique as the poorest country that I have been to and the project I have been on is the only one where the conditions I have stayed in have reflected this. After an 11 hour long and very confusing flight to Santiago in Chile, I had a four hour wait for my connection to Quito and I didn’t really know what day it was. I went the wrong way across the international date line and today instantly became yesterday, but as the flight had gone overnight, I ... read more
Aukland Harbour bridge
Well, it’s that time again and I’m off to a new country on Sunday. New Zealand has been very satisfying in some ways, I feel that the work I’ve helped in has been of real value, but I’ve not been as thrilled by the country as I thought I would be. This may have been due to my restricted abilities as my arm was in plaster for the first three weeks and is still weak and stiff as I write this, so many of the activities that NZ is famous for have been beyond my strength(as well as my wallet). I arrived five Saturdays ago and got off to a bad start, as the hostel that I was booked in was a hell hole, designed exclusively for eighteen year old binge drinkers. At 1.30 in the ... read more
former pine plantation
I leave Australia for New Zealand on Saturday, so I thought I’d better update my blog. The highlight of my time in Australia has been my tussle with a pine log on my fourth working day, that left me with a broken arm. It’s ironic that in all my battles with the killer trees of Africa, I have suffered no serious injury (just lost gallons of blood), but a soft Aussie tree gets the better of me. It has also meant that I have been unable to use the long lens on my camera to get wildlife shots. The best of the wildlife that I have been seeing is the birds. The various parrots and cockatoos are amazing and common. I have seen clouds of sulpher crested cockatoos taking off from the meadows as our vehicle ... read more
Shout if you can see anyone
Well, here I am in Australia and settled into my project in Bathurst, near Sydney, (only four hours away). I’ve been in Oz for twelve days now and I’ve got another four weeks to do. Still, the convicts had to stay for a lot longer, so it’s not so bad. Up to now, I’ve just been doing the tourist thing with Anna, which has been a wonderful time. Where to start on my first Aussie blog? I know, South Africa. There were a few interesting things that happened after my last blog, (well they were interesting to me, anyway) so behave and listen up while I tell you about them. On the Saturday night before I left, had a very disturbed night as something was digging around m caravan. After twenty minutes, the dogs started barking ... read more
Waterbuck is so filling
Well, I’ve been here for a long time, but now it’s time for Australia. There have been several highlights this month starting with my first sighting of African Wild Dog. We got the call to go to Singwe camp, (a neighbouring property and we rolled up to a dry river bed to see three dogs resting in the sand after eating. You can see from the pictures that their bellies resemble beer barrels, so we didn’t see much action from them. Wewatched for about half an hour before leaving them to digest their meal. On the night of 9th of June, Nina and I started a twenty four hour observation of the big water hole from the hide. We lasted seven and a half hours ofa cold gusty wind before admitting defeat after seeing three flocks ... read more
baby giraffe
Well here I am again. It has been a quiet three weeks on Campfire, as most of the game seems for a while to have deserted us. We have spent a bit of time working, mostly erosion control and clearing the firebreak around the fence. People have come and gone, but I have stayed and I’m now the old timer here in more ways than one. We had a trip out to camp by the Oliphants river, which was a pleasant change, but the expected hippo and crocodiles stayed away, so I photgraphed lizards and dragonflies instead. On 13th, we came back from the camp and after lunch we went to a neighbouring propert and helped to move the pump from one borehole to another, which entailed about a dozen of us marching through the bush ... read more
angelica
It’s been a quiet couple of weeks. I’ve not done any trips and no elephants have invaded the compound. The photos are, I think getting better as I am taking the camera out twice a day. On Monday, 27th April, we spotted a young giraffe with a snare round it’s back leg. As you can see from the pix it had not started cutting in yet, but unless it falls off soon, the result will be a slow and painful death, probably from gangrene. Campfire tried to get a vet organised to dart the animal and free it, but the Baluleh association would not pay for it, which rather angered me. Their argument is that giraffes are not very good at coping with anasthetics and would probably not get up again, but that sounds pretty lame ... read more
The big jump
Hello again, Excitng times for me again in South Africa. Last week I sent photos of the Kruger National Park, but couldn't fit on the pictures from the panorama trail. I'm putting on a couple, but not too many or I won't be able to place all the shots i want to show you from everything else. Where to start? Saturday. Went for a late night game drive and saw two lionesses with their cubs in the dark. Watched them for a while, but it is quite scary, because while we were watching one lioness with the spotlight, the other is in the dark somewhere. I took my small torch with me and kept having quick looks behind me to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us. Sunday. A nice quiet boat trip on the ... read more
Impala
Hello again, My second entry from South Africa, and a splendid week it has been. I have lots of photos to show you, much more than I can really put on the blog, but I'll see what I can fit on. Did erosion control work on Monday, which basically was pulling logs and prickly branches together to stop vehicles from neighbouring properties from taking unauthorised shortcuts through the bush. By the time the branches have rotted down in five years or so, the grasses have grown through and provide good grazing for the wildlife. On Tuesday, four of us went on a horseback safari, riding through the bush on very comfortable horses, which gives you a good chance of getting close to the game without them getting spooked. It is about thirty years since I last ... read more
