wildlife

Island hopping

~ donquioaty ~ 2 Comments

The Galapagos is an archipelago of barren volcanic islands. The equatorial sun burns down on them and there is very little shade.

With no fresh water the islands are not well suited to habitation by either donkeys or humans.

Most of them are uninhabited refuges for a remarkable array of wildlife with unique species that helped to form Charles Darwin’s conclusions about evolution.

To explore a few of the islands and to meet some of the remarkable native inhabitants DonQui needs to get on a boat. There are a wide choice of day trips available from Puerto Ayora and all require an early morning start. This takes some effort on DonQui’s part as he is not naturally an early riser.

A dingy or water taxi takes DonQui to his waiting vessel on each of his three day-excursions to Pinzón, Isabella and North Seymour. The boats are quite comfortable — especially the catamaran which takes him to North Seymour. The groups on board are very small, usually about 10-12 passengers — the number of visitors being strictly limited to avoid overcrowding and too much disturbance to the wildlife.

A dingy is towed along behind to assist with beach landings and to get to good snorkelling spots.

On his way to Pinzón DonQui is lucky to encounter some Dolphins who decided to playfully swim around the boat for several minutes.

… and on the way back from North Seymour a huge Tiger Shark escorts DonQui out of the shark’s territorial waters. DonQui thinks it best not to argue.

The various snorkelling stops are the best part of all the trips. The water is crystal clear so DonQui is able to observe a huge array of tropical fish. Off Pinzón a family of sea lions swim alongside. One comes right up to DonQui and nosily presses its snout at DonQui’s mask. Off North Seymour DonQui suddenly finds himself in the middle of a huge school of whitetip sharks — hundreds of them swimming all around him. It was quite breathtaking.

Whilst snorkelling he aslo encounters marine iguanas, sea turtles, barracuda and several species of rays. 

DonQui also meets many fascinating species of birds such as these iconic blue footed boobies. Nearby DonQui sees a Galapagos penguin swimming and diving for fish.

One of these male frigate birds is puffing up his red throat sack in the hope of attracting a mate. The other looks as if he couldn’t be bothered.

DonQui sees land iguanas everywhere.

And he also comes across a pair of giant tortoises doing their best to ensure the continuation of their species.

Six days on the Galapagos with three spent on the inhabited Santa Cruz and three day-excursions to other islands is just about enough. DonQui thinks it might have been an idea to have spent a bit longer so he could have gone to San Cristobal to spent a night there. However, he has seen more wildlife close up than he could possibly have hoped for. So he is just about ready for his next adventure

On Safari

~ donquioaty ~ 6 Comments

Before DonQui takes his blog out of  Tanzania he thinks he should say something about the wildlife.

Cape Buffalo

He did not have the chance to get to any of the parks on this most recent visit but he has in the past.

Grass fire on the Serengeti copy

It is hard to put into words just how magnificent the Serengeti is.

Wildebeast Migration 2It helped that DonQui managed to time his visit to coincide with the Wildebeest migration. This was good luck rather than good management as the migration started a few months earlier than expected due to early rains.

hyena

A night out on the plains under canvas with hyenas and leopards prowling around the campsite was an experience DonQui is not likely to forget in a hurry.

Zebra for Breakfast 1 copy

He felt more than a little uneasy early the next morning when he saw close up how one of his black and white stripy relatives had become breakfast for a pride of lions.

The Serengeti was simply magnificent. It is one of those incredible places that should be visited at least once in a lifetime.

KenyaTanzaniaAdventure29 copy

The Ngorongoro crater — the world’s largest inactive volcanic caldera — is famous for its high density of wildlife. Despite the magnificent scenery and plentiful animals, it at times it seemed to DonQui that it was a bit like a trip to the zoo with an even higher density of people.

tourists
Guides radio each other as soon as some interesting animals are spotted and before you can blink the poor beasts are surrounded by dozens of vehicles filled with camera toting tourists.

If DonQui ever gets the chance to again go on safari in Tanzania he would like to try to make it to one of the lesser visited parks such as the Selous Game Reserve or Ruaha National Park for more of a wilderness experience. Maybe one day he might even make it to Gombe to see chimpanzees in the wild.