Island Holidays Blog

Birds, bears and botany

Romania here I come!   I leave at lunch time today to fly to Amsterdam where I'll overnight so that I'm there in plenty of time for the clients arriving from various UK airports for the onward flight to Bucharest tomorrow.   It's a fabulous country - still very poor but making terrific progress since its entry into the European Union which is good to see.   Mind you, I still go armed with notepads and pens for the school kids so they've a long way to go yet.

Rumour has it that water levels in the Danube Delta are really low and that our houseboat won't be able to access all the places we want to go.  Instead we'll hop into little boats which will mean rather long cramped journeys - but the birds are fantastic so there's always plenty to look at.  I've never seen so many herons in my life!

The second part of the holiday is in the Carpathian Mountains and this I'm really looking forward to as I didn't have enough time to get up there when I went to do the recky a few years ago.  Don't worry - the clients will have a local botanist who works with the National Park to guide them so they won't be relying on me knowing a place I've never been to!   Perish the thought!   One evening we'll be going to look for brown bears and that will be rather exciting.  Cameras are banned after one client last year (and you now who you are) took a flash photo which frightened the animal off and no-one got a good look at it.  How to win friends.......   He swore he'd turned the flash off but that's technology for you and the upshot is that no-one is allowed to take a camera into the hide with them.   So there!   Libby says!

Anyway, I'd better stop chattering on as much remains to be done as always.  I don't think I've ever been up to date in the 21 years I've been running Island Holidays so there's no reason today should be any different.   There won't be a chance to get to a computer during this holiday so you can expect a long silence from me.

Australia

My lovely aunt, Sheila, is going to be celebrating her 80th birthday in Perth in November.  Now if that was Perth, Scotland it would be really convenient - just 25 miles away - but, no, we're talking Western Australia here.   In a moment of madness I said I'd be there which sort of equates to going to Seoul (South Korea) for the weekend for my cousin's wedding!   But it won't be a weekend - I'm making a big trip of it.

The planning is coming together and is based on investigating the new Australian tour which we will be introducing in our 2009 brochure (you can get the initial outline on our newsletter which is now up and running on the website).   I wanted to go to Lord Howe Island but it really is rather on the expensive side and there are limits!   So I'm contenting myself with Brisbane and the famous O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat which looks stunning.  I met the people there at the Bird Fair last year and doubtless they'll be at Rutland again in August so there will be some familiar faces.

From there I'll fly down to Tasmania and Bruny Island.  At the moment I'm working on the itinerary with the help of one of the island's leading naturalists, Dr Tonia Cochrane who is being terrific.  Trouble is that I think there's a bit too much in it.  I'd really love to see Tasmanian Devil (see picture) and Duck-billed Platypus but might have to cut that bit out.   At the end of all that I'll fly all the way across Australia to Perth and then come home via Singapore or somewhere.   The whole thing will take most of November and will not only be wonderful but make me better able to ensure the trip next March is absolutely perfect for my clients.   So excuse me now while I go back to the planning.

Comings and Goings

It's that time of year where we have so many tours coming and going it's hard to keep track!  I actually have to check each day to see who's going where, who is already somewhere and who's due back!  It seems from the questionnaires that the vast majority of people are more than satisfied - the "excellent" box gets lots of ticks which is gratifying.  We're certainly not perfect but we really do try our very best and it's good to know that it mostly works well.

The newsletter has had a good response - phones and emails were red hot yesterday.  I've just sent it through to Rich (my webmaster) for posting, so it should be on the website later today with any luck.  Apart from that there's just so much to do for the brochure that I can't see how it can possibly get out on time - but Karon says I say that every year and it always does.  It's the sheer volume of detail which can be overwhelming and it's not helped by people not replying to emails - at the moment I'm waiting for something like 70 replies!   Very frustrating.

By the way - you know last time I said the Ospreys were back but I hadn't seen them?  Well, that's been put right.  I walked round that way on Sunday evening and, as I passed, she got up off the nest and flew around a bit before returning to settle again.  It was almost as if she wanted a good stretch and then duty called.   And talking about duty calling, I think it's about time to get back to that brochure.

Day off!

I did the unheard of - had a bank holiday weekend (almost).   Admitedly I nipped in to the office to do the odd hour here and there, but basically I behaved like a human being for the whole weekend!   I guess the focal point was the rather excellent rib roast on Sunday evening with half a dozen friends (I think there were 7 of us).   Shame I burnt the Yorkshire Pud!   Then there were Clover and Bracken who came to brighten my life for Saturday and Sunday - a pair of Flat-Coat Retrievers.  Clover is getting on a bit - she's nearly 10 - but little Bracken is only 6 months and full of energy.  They were a real joy.

Yesterday really was the first day of summer in this neck of the woods and how lovely it was.  The bluebells are beginning to come out and the woods are full of anenomes and dog violets while the banks are carpeted in primroses and the smell of wild garlic fills the air.   The local Osprey are back although I haven't seen them myself yet.  Every time I go for a walk past their nest they're either out or sitting tight.  One of my neighbours was admiring the way they go all the way to Africa and then find their way back to the self-same tree:  dammit, I go to Africa and find my way home too and nobody says I'm amazing!

So now it's back to work with a vengeance with less than 2 weeks before I head off to Romania and the brochure seriously badly behind.   Watch out for the new newsletter which should be on the website in the next couple of days and hitting doormats or inboxes very soon.