For a while I’d thought about going to Finland to photograph brown bears, so a decision to finally book it found me spending 5 nights in a tiny hide out in the swamps, forests and lakes. In late summer, the bears feast in preparation for the fast approaching winter, and it’s then that bear activity reaches its … More Bears in Finland…..
My holidays and trips are planned months in advance, and I even have a trip in the diary now for October 2020. However, one Sunday evening a few weeks ago I decided to join my husband who would be spending a few days in Venice. He was leaving the next day…. Unfortunately there were no … More 36 hours in Venice
Imire is approximately 90 minutes away from Harare and below is the lodge where all volunteers stay. It’s shabbier inside than it looks on the outside but that’s par for the course with volunteer accommodation and was perfectly adequate. However, I hadn’t expected it to be in such a beautiful setting – it’s right on … More Imire, Zimbabwe – Volunteer tasks
Sad fact: A rhino horn can be worth over £400,000 on the black market! I will never understand why something that is the same substance as our fingernails is so sought after in Asian countries, particularly Vietnam. Rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine, but increasingly common is its use as a status symbol to display … More Imire,Zimbabwe. The rhinos.
Imire Rhino & Wildlife Conservancy is a 10,000 acre reserve in Zimbabwe, and is dedicated to protecting wildlife with a specific focus on the protection and breeding of the critically endangered Black and White Rhino. I’d heard really good things from several people who had previously volunteered there, and so myself, my son, and daughter in law booked up … More The very confused Elephant! Imire, Zimbabwe
My Botswana camping trip finished in the town of Victoria Falls, just over the border in Zimbabwe. I had most of the day to myself before meeting my son (Aaron) and daughter in law (Rachel) who were joining me there before flying on to Harare to volunteer for two weeks. At lunchtime I met up … More Zimbabwe – Victoria Falls
On our journeys we went over several of these bridges pictured below. The signs always made me smile – as if we could speed over them! One of them was only inches wider than our vehicle’s tyres and our guide had to line up his approach very carefully. Guides usually stop to pass on information … More Botswana Part 3. Chobe.
In Moremi game reserve our guide heard over the radio that there was a sighting of a couple of male lions, so we set off in the hope that we’d find them. It took over an hour to get to where they’d been spotted last, but was well worth it to see these magnificent beasts. … More Botswana Part 2. Moremi Game Reserve.
After my Namibia tour I had two weeks to spare before going on to volunteer in Zimbabwe, so after a lot of internet searching I found an 11 day camping tour of Botswana, a country that I’d wanted to visit for quite a few years. It was a semi-participation tour, which meant that we were … More Botswana. Part 1. Okavango Delta
Continuing on from my previous post, the afternoon at the coast was spent enjoying a sand dunes experience in a couple of 4x4s. This started with a drive along the lagoon with flamingos not too far out, so of course we stopped to photograph them. We were watching a lioness drinking at a waterhole when … More Namibia 2019 – Part 2
