I have not been out and about on tours over the last few months. I have been in Swakopmund, and spending a great deal of my time birding and even just enjoying the thrill of taking out my kids and watching beetles in the dunes or fish swimming in the tidal pools. Over the last week or so, I have been engaged in a lot of birding with the focus on the counts for wetlands (see Wetlands International website) around the world.
Africa has long had an image as the continent of adventure. In a good and a bad sense. It's retained perhaps more 'wildness' than other continents. And, it has the big stuff - lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, leopards, and on and on. It's somewhat of an easy sell - you want to see a lion in the wild - you must go to Africa. And experience the adventure around it - go out in the bush, drive around with your guide or ranger, and find this creature in it's habitat. Adventure for sure.
As a tour guide, however, it is possible to sometimes get the attraction in reverse. It's cool to see a lion. Sure it is. Elephants, giraffes, etc. It's all cool. But very often seeing a lion is more a sense of relief for me...you know, the pressure of the guests you have with you on safari. So it makes the enjoyment of those amazing creatures perhaps a little less of an...ADVENTURE.
So, at home, with my friends, my kids and the birding community, it's for pure joy that I go out and enjoy birds, lizards, fish, fog, sand, the exercise in nature and so on, brought on by my own 'adventures' with nature. I can't wait. I love going out and finding it, learning about it, coming home and reading about what I have seen. It's pure indulgence for me.
I believe that this renewed sense of adventure that I feel for nature, having had a really good break, has made me so much more enthusiastic once again for sharing my passion for nature with the guests that I will be taking out over the next few months. Regardless of what I will be doing...a simple birding trip, and educational trip or a full fledged safari, I hope that I convey the feeling for adventure, the sense of discovery all over again. Share this post
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3 comments:
An interesting Blog, and how good that your children can gain pleasure exploring the natural world rather than needing all the "must have" gadgets and gizmos!
Hi there! You surely also have a very interesting blog! I've been bit busy to update mine (but will be better after tax season - 5 Feb :-)
Very interesting lizard you have there...haven't seen a small one like this before.
Birding greetings
Luzelle Serfontein
Thanks. I actually read a good few blog posts of yours. You also have an interesting blog. I know all about blogs coming and going...both mine and from trying to get guides to post to the sightings blog when I worked for CCAfrica (now &beyond)
Anyway, the lizard, I think, is a Spotted Desert Lizard?? I think. It looks so vastly different from how I know them on Namib Rand. This one is here at the coast. Anyone who knows better, please let me know.
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