bob and julie

Well our South African adventure has come to an end all too quickly. We have had a terrific time and have seen so much. Our 4 days at Kirkmans Kamp, Sabi Sands Reserve was worth every expensive cent. Each day we had both a morning and evening safari drives of 3 or so hours. To get so close to lions, leopards, elephants and buffalo was an experience we will never forget. The policy is to allow only 2 vehicles at a sighting at any one time we never felt "just part of a crowd". The homestead and accomodation grounds of Kirkmans Kamp are not fenced off from the reserve nor Kruger National Park and as a safety precaution guests are escourted to their accomodation during the hours from dusk to dawn. We really thought that this ... read more

Hi Everyone Here we are at day 8 of our photo tour and this is the first opportunity we have had to stop and look through our photos and upload them. Day 8 has seen us drive from Johanesburg to our lodge "Misty Mountain" and it is certainly living up to its name - rain, mist and cold - though what can you expect at 2000m above sea level. We've had a great time so far - our 3 tour companions are fantastic people to travel with - they are as mad about birds and animals in general and are as click happy with their camera's as we are. They have a great sense of humour and as American's they have taken great delight in using some of our terms such as "bop" for birds of ... read more

BREATHLESS Since we last wrote we have flown from Cuzco to Arequipa, spent a night there, flown from Arequipa to Tacna, spent about 5 minutes there and caught a taxi to Arica in northern Chile. $40 US for a 50 km taxi ride and the driver handled all the cross border paperwork for us. Arica is a coastal town and fishing its main industry. Birds love fish, and there were thousands of pelicans and cormorants chasing the fish and the fishing boats. We spent a couple of days wandering the black sand beaches, hiring some bicycles one day to have a look further down the coast....In all the years of technological development in bicycle design, the seats are still unbelievable uncomfortable ;-) Got the bus up to Putre last Tuesday. A town of a few ... read more

I´m sittng here in our B&B basement accomodation in Cusco, Peru trying to get my brain into gear after a jam packed week of amazing sights, history (ancient), uncomfortable bus and train trips, walks and markets - somehow I think that I´m going to have to let the photos do the talking! Canyon Country We left Arequipa joining a 3 day Colca Canyon trip. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US. The steep sides range in depth from 1000-3000m at an altitude of 5000m to 2500m or so above sea level. It is pretty dry country that gets extremely cold in winter and is where a lot of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid was filmed. We hiked down into the valley - 3 hrs straight down ... read more

Theres a reason these places are called Rainforests More an experience than a photographic subject, the rain and the animals having little respect for us tourists. Leaf-cutter ants chew off pieces of the leaves of trees and carry them, single file, to their underground nest, where the leaves stored in warm humid conditions will develop a fungus growth. This fungus is food for the ants. Stepping over a procession of leaf-cutter ants while walking through the Amazon rainforest in the pouring rain is one of those priceless experiences that so typifies this part of the world. The Amazon is a wet place and for the last 5 days we, and everything we own, has been wet too. A little uncomfortable, yes, but its quickly forgotten when drifting down the river in our canoe we are accompanied ... read more