News
February and April 2024
Made two visits to The Gambia earlier this year. In February we stayed at the Bakotu Hotel but in April we tried an all-inclusive stay of eleven days at the Tamala Beach hotel as the Bakotu was closed. We enjoyed our stay and it was nice being able to walk straight on to the beach. Food was good and we had a very nice air conditioned room. Weather was very hot.
December 2023
We spent two weeks back in the sun in The Gambia. This was our ninth visit and we, again, stayed at the Bakatu Hotel. Although very hot we still managed to visit many places to photograph birds and enjoyed a relaxing stay. It won't be our last visit!
November 2023
Off to Africa again. Such an amazing place for wildlife. This time we headed from Johannesberg airport towards Dullstroom and then on to Blyde River Canyon and then into Kruger NP. We saw so much in in our visit arranged by Naturetrek. Our accommodation was good but we were up at 4.00 am every morning which took some time getting used to. Perhaps a trip to the Western Cape lies in the future.
March/April 2023
This was a very good visit to The Gambia in that we were able to get to see more birds than our visit last year including some action photos.
November/December 2022
Back to The Gambia again. We enjoyed the weather and the relaxation but birds were scarcer and sites were in need of much work to bring them back up to pre-covid standards.
September 2022
Our recent visit to Botswana was a very mixed experience. Inside Botswana we were traveling with a different company to that used in 2018 and we missed a number of things that made the 2018 trip so good. After four years there was bound to be changes particularly the effect Covid has had all over the world. However the 2018 company seemed to have everything so well planned.
The lions and leopards still produced good photographic opportunities but we missed not seeing as many birds as before.
October 2021
Covid-19 has certainly affected just about everybody. We had to cancel a planned trip to India to photograph Tigers in 2020 and have been UK 'locked down' since. However we have, this year, taken 4 day trips to N.Wales and Norfolk and have enjoyed taking photos as we were coming out of lockdown. Hopefully it will be possible to consider foreign trips in 2021.
November 2019
Another really good safari. This time to the Masai Mara in Kenya with Naturetrek. Everything worked well and we had a great time.The Cheetahs were amazing and we did see and photograph "The Five Musketeers"--- two pairs of brothers and single who had formed a very effective hunting pack. We also,at last, met up with The Secretarybird and photographed it-- wonderful! This trip had so much packed into it.
March 2019
The Southern Africa trip was taken in glass-sided land cruisers with pull down windows which didn't work as well for us taking photos as we needed to be a bit taller!! The land cruisers we used in our Botswana trip worked much better as they had open sides. However these latest vehicles had raised roofs which worked ok for us.
We saw quite a few mammals but only came across a leopard at night at a floodlit waterhole, but it was interesting watching rhinos jousting while a female and young rhino looked on.
We stayed at several lodges and the accommodation was always good.
December 2018
Our return visit to The Gambia was disappointing. There were far fewer birds than expected and habitat change seems to be responsible. A combination of issues which include continued house building, tree-felling (it seems this is on the increase), shooting, and, possibly, climate change ( at times the temperature was higher than we had experienced before which may be responsible for several small ponds vanishing and larger ponds becoming shallower).However we did at last get to see the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill which I photographed with the help of a 2x extender.
Hopefully things will at least stabilise soon.
October 2018
We had a great time in the Okavango Delta in Botswana on a mammal/bird safari with Naturetrek. We stayed in comfortable tents (with en suite), dining each night outside under the stars eating excellent food cooked on an open fire with ice cold beer or wine.
There were so many photographic opportunities (see my Botswana gallery) and I shot well over 2000 photos in a week. We were close up with so many impressive mammals and birds that it was, at times, hard to believe it was real.
We'll be back!!
March 2018
Our January trip to The Gambia went well except we had to return from a trip upriver before reaching Georgetown as our guide's vehicle was causing problems. Perhaps we'll visit upriver next trip.
My wife's luggage was removed from our flight before we left Birmingham along with that of several other passengers to lighten the aircraft without our knowledge. Thomas Cook delivered it via Manchester the following evening. We were really grateful to staff from The Gambia Experience in helping us as the Thomas Cook coach and rep left without us.
I finally was able to photograph the Goliath Heron, but we still missed the Ground Hornbill.
.
.
Made two visits to The Gambia earlier this year. In February we stayed at the Bakotu Hotel but in April we tried an all-inclusive stay of eleven days at the Tamala Beach hotel as the Bakotu was closed. We enjoyed our stay and it was nice being able to walk straight on to the beach. Food was good and we had a very nice air conditioned room. Weather was very hot.
December 2023
We spent two weeks back in the sun in The Gambia. This was our ninth visit and we, again, stayed at the Bakatu Hotel. Although very hot we still managed to visit many places to photograph birds and enjoyed a relaxing stay. It won't be our last visit!
November 2023
Off to Africa again. Such an amazing place for wildlife. This time we headed from Johannesberg airport towards Dullstroom and then on to Blyde River Canyon and then into Kruger NP. We saw so much in in our visit arranged by Naturetrek. Our accommodation was good but we were up at 4.00 am every morning which took some time getting used to. Perhaps a trip to the Western Cape lies in the future.
March/April 2023
This was a very good visit to The Gambia in that we were able to get to see more birds than our visit last year including some action photos.
November/December 2022
Back to The Gambia again. We enjoyed the weather and the relaxation but birds were scarcer and sites were in need of much work to bring them back up to pre-covid standards.
September 2022
Our recent visit to Botswana was a very mixed experience. Inside Botswana we were traveling with a different company to that used in 2018 and we missed a number of things that made the 2018 trip so good. After four years there was bound to be changes particularly the effect Covid has had all over the world. However the 2018 company seemed to have everything so well planned.
The lions and leopards still produced good photographic opportunities but we missed not seeing as many birds as before.
October 2021
Covid-19 has certainly affected just about everybody. We had to cancel a planned trip to India to photograph Tigers in 2020 and have been UK 'locked down' since. However we have, this year, taken 4 day trips to N.Wales and Norfolk and have enjoyed taking photos as we were coming out of lockdown. Hopefully it will be possible to consider foreign trips in 2021.
November 2019
Another really good safari. This time to the Masai Mara in Kenya with Naturetrek. Everything worked well and we had a great time.The Cheetahs were amazing and we did see and photograph "The Five Musketeers"--- two pairs of brothers and single who had formed a very effective hunting pack. We also,at last, met up with The Secretarybird and photographed it-- wonderful! This trip had so much packed into it.
March 2019
The Southern Africa trip was taken in glass-sided land cruisers with pull down windows which didn't work as well for us taking photos as we needed to be a bit taller!! The land cruisers we used in our Botswana trip worked much better as they had open sides. However these latest vehicles had raised roofs which worked ok for us.
We saw quite a few mammals but only came across a leopard at night at a floodlit waterhole, but it was interesting watching rhinos jousting while a female and young rhino looked on.
We stayed at several lodges and the accommodation was always good.
December 2018
Our return visit to The Gambia was disappointing. There were far fewer birds than expected and habitat change seems to be responsible. A combination of issues which include continued house building, tree-felling (it seems this is on the increase), shooting, and, possibly, climate change ( at times the temperature was higher than we had experienced before which may be responsible for several small ponds vanishing and larger ponds becoming shallower).However we did at last get to see the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill which I photographed with the help of a 2x extender.
Hopefully things will at least stabilise soon.
October 2018
We had a great time in the Okavango Delta in Botswana on a mammal/bird safari with Naturetrek. We stayed in comfortable tents (with en suite), dining each night outside under the stars eating excellent food cooked on an open fire with ice cold beer or wine.
There were so many photographic opportunities (see my Botswana gallery) and I shot well over 2000 photos in a week. We were close up with so many impressive mammals and birds that it was, at times, hard to believe it was real.
We'll be back!!
March 2018
Our January trip to The Gambia went well except we had to return from a trip upriver before reaching Georgetown as our guide's vehicle was causing problems. Perhaps we'll visit upriver next trip.
My wife's luggage was removed from our flight before we left Birmingham along with that of several other passengers to lighten the aircraft without our knowledge. Thomas Cook delivered it via Manchester the following evening. We were really grateful to staff from The Gambia Experience in helping us as the Thomas Cook coach and rep left without us.
I finally was able to photograph the Goliath Heron, but we still missed the Ground Hornbill.
.
.