India - Here We Go!

Well, we're nearly ready to go again. So much has happened in the last three months that, all things considered, it was touch-and-go whether I would cancel this trip at more than one point. In the end though, Dad would have wanted me to go, no matter what happened and that's what I've decided to do. There might even be a little bit of my usual nervousness having been responsible for my doubts along the way.

It's tricky, when everyone around you is either telling you that India is wonderful or that India is terrible, to come to your own view without actually going and seeing for yourself. I only have my travelling companions to truly rely on in this regard. Fred has consistently repeated, time and time again, that he really doesn't like India, for a number of reasons. However, he keeps coming up with an excuse to go back, meaning that there must be something really worthwhile to draw him, despite his reservations.

This time, that was a set of photos on a trip report made by some of his friends on Trip Advisor. All he had to do was show them to me as well and I was hooked. While the main focus of this trip might be those huge striped cats, there does really seem to be so much more to be seen.

Our trip will be a little bird-heavy. Sometimes this is a complaint, especially when it is in a place that you've visited before, but India's birds will be mostly new to me and that's just fine. I've called "Jungle Fowl" in almost every country in Africa, only to be consistently told that the roadside chickens aren't native. Now's my big chance to tick it off the list once and for all. That's probably also true for peacocks and pheasants.

So, I have my passport, I have my Visa and I have my yellow fever card. Cameras have been checked, new batteries have been purchased - at great expense - and my laptop has been cleared for the influx of photographs. I'm as ready as I'll ever be to experience India on my own terms and I'm ready!

Safari 2025 - Technically Not!

There's a pretty strong argument that the word Safari, although meaning a journey to hunt for wild animals, should be solely associated with doing so in Africa. Over time, of course, this definition has loosened considerably and I'm pretty happy to call this upcoming trip a Safari.

I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone this time. Twice - at least - my friends have planned trips here and I've declined on both occasions. The first time, I simply couldn't afford to go, but the second time I felt that it just wasn't a country I wanted to actually visit. Fred, in particular, keeps going back but constantly tells me that he doesn't like the place and there have been many pronouncements of "Never Again" over the years.

And, where is this place? India.

Now, India is a very big country and, as always, our time will be limited. This calls for careful planning and considerable sacrifice. Here's the basic plan for our trip:

• Fly out from Heathrow on February 25th to Delhi
• Overnight in Delhi
• Drive to Agra for two nights to see Taj Mahal, etc
• Boat Trip on Chambal River - looking for crocodiles and gharial
• Haiderpur Wetlands - Lots of birds
• Three lodges in and around Jim Corbett National Park -  six days looking for Tigers!!!
• Manila and Sattal in the Himalaya Foothills around Nanda Devi - scenery and more birds
• Drive back to Delhi for one night
• Fly to Leh in Ladakh
• Six days to explore:
• Khardung La and Tanglung La - High road mountain passes above 17,000 feet!
• Tso Kar - High mountain lake for rare birds
• Hanle - Possible to see a Pallas's Cat
• Plenty of time to look for Snow Leopard, Tibetan Fox, Wolf, Lynx, Red Fox, etc.
• Back to Delhi for one more night
• Return to Heathrow and then home on March 23rd

So, Agra is as far south as we get, but primarily this is Northern India in the extreme. For me, the highlight will, of course, be Corbett. In some ways, tigers are the only thing that make me want to go to India enough to finally do so.

Having said that, there's plenty more to be seen. This is the Himalayas. Nanda Devi is the highest mountain entirely in India and then we head even deeper into the mountains by going to Ladakh.

Leh, at more than 11,000 feet is our starting point. This is technically the low point between the western end of the Himalayas and the Karakoram range to the north, the valley of the Indus River. As we land, we might glimpse the summit of K2 at more than 28,000 feet. We'll head out wherever the roads are open. I've no real expectation of seeing either the snow leopard or Pallas's cat, but there is hope always.

That Elephant Encounter - Video

One of the things that I never - well almost never - manage is to take any video while I'm on safari. Once in a while I'll remember that I have my phone in my pocket and even more rarely I'll remember that video is a thing.

I'm just not a videographer. Photos are what work for me and I don't even have to think about taking them, it is just automatic. And that applies whether it is reaching for the big camera, the compact camera or the phone - indeed it is sometimes a case of reaching for all three to capture as much information and variety of shots as possible.

The point is, for the most part, I have to rely on others to capture video for me and, luckily, Emmy is often there to pick up the slack. Here is his short clip from our first proper elephant encounter from Akagera in Rwanda.

Safari 2024 - Trip Report

So, the 2024 safari to Rwanda and Tanzania is now over and we are all safely back home. It is, as usual, time to complete my trip report and start work on the book of the trip. As always, this is a fairly long and involved process, made simpler by my writing more than ten thousand words while away. I'm working on the final layout of the large-format book and, as I am still in the process of working on the whole series as a set of paperbacks, I am working on that version at the same time.

Each report gets longer and more rambling than the last and I should apologise for that in advance. I've broken it into what I hope are logical sections and it is all at the link on the right or by following this link HERE.

The Communications Conundrum

The Year in Review

After more than three years at home, 2023 marked my return to travel and an epic return to Africa. The trip was the hardest we'd ever had together and it left me simultaneously drained and re-invigorated. On the one hand, I now hated the process of travelling and decried the failings of confused airline personnel. On the other, I had seen some magnificent mammals and birds and the new camera and lens combination had performed magnificently.

I had, as has become a habit, started work on the write-up for my coffee-table book about the trip whilst I was there. It gives me something to do on a very hot afternoon. I can sit on the veranda and work on my laptop for an hour or so every couple of days and be almost ready to go with the text as soon as I get back. I finished the book in record time and found myself really enjoying the writing process, almost more than the holiday itself.

Once I started, I couldn't stop. I'd always had a desire to write a novel, but also wanted to write an autobiography of sorts. I combined the two and, having satisfied myself that I could actually do it, buried the autobiographical novel in the depths of my hard drive to never see the light of an embarrassing day. But I had ideas flooding my brain and just kept on going. By August I had pretty much burned myself out for a time, having written and published 3 full novels on Amazon. I stalled in the fourth novel, however and only managed to come back to it at the end of the year, publishing it at the very end of December.

Meanwhile, I created a paperback version of my travel book and then went on to publish three small volumes of photographs, again on Amazon. Frankly, writing and publishing is addictive. As the year turns over, I have started another novel and words are flowing pretty well. So, 2023 is all about words. More than 300,000 published words if we are counting.

As for the rest of my year, I guess it has been much like any other. My blood-pressure has been brought under control by medication and my general mood seems to be improving, probably thanks in part to taking Vitamin D. I am indeed a year older and the aches and pains are probably to be expected. Nothing life-threatening though. I continue to work as usual, spreading my time out between the workshop in Maughold and my regular customers.

My friends and I have made plans to return to Africa in February once more. Again we will be in Tanzania - around the shores of Lake Victoria with a few days in Rwanda, a new country for me to add to the list.

The Conundrum

So, for all my personal success in getting words onto the page and out into the world, there remains the increasingly difficult problem of personal communications. I have written at length here in the past about my anxieties and mental health issues. It isn't something that just goes away and, indeed, it seems to come and go as time passes.

For much of the second half of 2023 I have had very severe problems with personal communications. I've always had issues with using the telephone. I'm always very happy to answer a call and get stuff sorted. I just always find it difficult to make an outgoing call. It's a problem that I've always been conscious of, but I do try my best to work around it. Sometimes, however, I just can't do it. This year has been particularly bad and this communications anxiety - for wont of a better word - has spread to other forms of communication as well.

I now find it almost as difficult to respond to an email, Whatsapp, Facebook or text message. I normally get there in the end, but at the very least it can take a couple of days for me to simply work up to formulating a reply. It's not always like that, of course. On some days I can respond quickly and simply to an incoming message as soon as I get the chance and spontaneous questions are far more likely to get a quick answer.

I'm far from convinced that it is something that I will ever get over. I can only apologise to anybody who has expected a response from me and not received one. For anybody who needs a more immediate response, then probably best to call me on my mobile. If I don't come back to you, then leave it for an hour or two and try again. If I answer, everything will be fine. If I don't then I may just be unable to return the call. Don't feel that you are bugging me, it probably is helping.

The Upgrade

If 2022 was the year of the camera, then 2024 is the year of the computer.

I last built myself a new desktop computer at the very end of 2017. I went all-out to build something that was close to state-of-the-art for the time in the hope that it would last me a while. I've had a couple of upgrades in the intervening six years, but it has worked pretty much flawlessly for that time.

Still, the art does advance and I was starting to find that some software was beginning to feel a little sluggish. I've discovered the power of Topaz Photo AI and frankly the processing power needed for it to work well is staggering. I had the graphics card, but the main processor and memory were lacking. Even some of the new features of Adobe Photoshop push the old system to its limits.

Anyway, over the last few months I've built up a set of new components and created a totally new PC tower that should hopefully keep me going for another few years. I don't think I've ever done a rundown of my hardware, so here goes.

It's now an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 processor with 32Gb of DDR5 memory on an ASUS B650 mainboard. Storage is provided by a 1TB Crucial NVME SSD as a main drive with a pair of 4TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD drives for data and main backup. I use an external 4TB portable hard drive for secondary backup.

Display is provided by an AMD Radeon 6600 Graphics card that drives three 32-inch ViewSonic monitors at 2560x1440 pixels. I run Windows 11 Professional and it is as up-to-date as possible.

I still have my 14-inch Huawei laptop that I use for diagnostics and travel as well.

Into 2024

So, another year has passed and we are all alive and reasonably well. I've a great holiday to look forward to in February and am keen to keep on with my writing.

Safari 2024 - Tanzania (Again)

Well, the last few months have been a bit of a roller-coaster from a possible travel point of view. We went from being determined to not go again to possibly doing an epic Spine of Africa road-trip to finally settling on something a little more modest. This will be my tenth safari to Africa and, as always and despite the hard work that the last trip involved, I am really looking forward to it.

Preliminary Route and Location Map

Our usual group of four is down to three for this trip, Elizabeth deciding to stay behind for this one, leaving myself, Fred and Chris to travel out and join Emmy, our driver and guide, who is coming over from Uganda to look after us. Fred is doing a sterling job of organisation as usual, co-ordinating with local assistance to get us the best deals at the best locations.

We're going to start with a couple of firsts. It will be my first time flying out of Heathrow. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad one, but the times of all the flights mean that we won't have an overnight in either direction, having night flights for the long-hauls instead.

Secondly, as the map shows, we are flying direct to Kigali in Rwanda. Another country to tick off on my list. We're not just using it as a drop-in point, we are going to spend a few days in Akagera National Park on the way home.

Anyway, here's the provisional itinerary (and it may be subject to minor changes.

• February 14th - Fly from The Isle of Man to London then overnight to Rwanda.
  
  A long flight, but we can sleep through it and be fairly fresh for a moderate drive to our first destination.
  
  
• February 15th - Drive from Kigali to Burigi-Chato National Park in Tanzania.
  
  It's a fairly newly gazetted national park, but it will be well worth the visit. Sitatunga antelopes and Shoebill are high on my list of things to see here. Two nights at the Chato Beach Resort.
  
  We'll move on to have a three nights out on Rubondo Island. The whole island is a nature reserve famed for its primates and birds.
  
  Finally, back to Chato Beach Resort for one more night before moving on.
  
  
• February 21st - Sandmark Hotel on Speke Gulf
  
  Plenty to see and do on the shores of Lake Victoria for a couple of nights to break up the drive.
  
  
• February 23rd - Serengeti to Ikoma
  
  We drive east into the vastness of the Serengeti. I've been to Seronera briefly before, but it will be nice to go back, even if we are just passing through on the way a little further north to Ikoma. Lots of big game to be seen, but plenty of birds as well.
  
  
• February 26th - Mwitongo Lodge, Butiama
  
  We drive north to Butiama through the Grumeti Game Reserve. From Butiama we can explore the mouth of the Mara river and the hopefully bird-filled papyrus beds to be found there.
  
  
• February 29th - Speke Bay Lodge
  
  Hopefully time to get out on the water and explore the birdlife of the vastness of Lake Victoria. Plenty of game-viewing excursions to be had as well.
  
  
• March 3rd - The Drive Back
  
  We haven't settled on an overnight location on the long drive back just yet, but we'll find something.
  
  
• March 4th - Akagera
  
  Five days in the National Park at two different location should give us plenty of opportunity to see the big five and lots of other game. There are lakes to be explored as well.
  
  
• March 9th - Kigali and Home
  
  Return to Kigali for our overnight flight back to Heathrow.
  
  
• March 10th - Home
  
  Chris leaves us at Heathrow and we fly back to the Island.

So, three and a half weeks to explore the southern shores of Lake Victoria. No doubt hundreds of bird species, but I'm looking forward to seeing my fair share of big game and there are always some surprises to be had.

Tanzania 2023 Trip Report

As always, there is a comprehensive report on my latest Safari trip to Africa. It's been more than three years since the last one and I've worked hard to get this one done quickly.

I found it a very hard trip - I am older every time after all - but much of that was soon overcome by some fantastic mammal and bird sightings. As a big bonus, the camera and lens that I'd worried so much about spending a small fortune on worked wonderfully and helped me capture some of the best pictures I've ever managed.

Follow the link to start reading: Tanzania 2023

(Note: I updated the text on 8/3/23 to bring it in line with my master for the upcoming paperback version and the version available on Blurb.com)

Back to Africa - 2023 Tanzania Plans

Remembering Tanzania

I first went to Tanzania in 2010, flying out of a snowy Ronaldsway to an even more snowy Manchester in January. My friends, Fred and Elizabeth had been there since before Christmas with a third friend, Chris who I was yet to meet, but would be sharing with. I managed to negotiate Manchester and Amsterdam airports and eventually arrive late at night at Kilimanjaro International and meet my pick-up for the short drive to the airport guest house.

I woke early, as the sun was rising and soon found the view I had dreamt might be possible from the airport. Mt. Kilimanjaro looms above the plains to the north of the airport, with Mt. Meru off to the west as well.

Mt. Kilimanjaro, capped with snow, appears through the hazy dawn.

For the next sixteen days, we would visit some of the most iconic safari destinations in Tanzania and Africa, doing a tour of part of the northern circuit. After my first trip to Africa, I was already hooked, but this would be the trip where I would finally get to see the big game that I craved: a trip that would more than match my expectations and leave me totally addicted to the safari experience.

Black Rhino with calf, keeping their distance in Ngorongoro Crater.

A few of the million or more Wildebeest at Ndutu.

Lions devour an unfortunate Wildebeest just south of Ndutu.

My first Leopard, dozing in an acacia in the heart of the Serengeti.

I didn't know when I might get back to Tanzania, but I really enjoyed the first trip and hoped to return one day.

Thirteen Years

I never thought that it might be thirteen years before I would be able to return to Tanzania, but many trips to other countries in Africa and then a global pandemic have all marked the passage of time.

But, in a very quick decision process, we have made our plans (or rather, Fred has done sterling work and made plans) and we are returning to Tanzania at the start of February 2023. Although I would love to revisit some of the places from my last time there, we have decided to head further into the wild and concentrate on some of the southern destinations this time.

Tanzania is home to some of the largest and wildest National Parks and Reserves in the world and it's time for me to see some of them.

We'll fly with KLM once more - still my favourite - and land at Dar Es Salam very late at night on 3rd February, where Fred promises us a "modest B&B". I've had experience of Fred's modest bookings before and we'll be fine because anywhere is better than the Hotel Vanilla in Bundibugyo or the UWA Bandas in Semliki!

Tanzania with Parks and Reserves marked and our
destinations highlighted

A comfortable 300km drive to the south will take us to Mikumi Safari Lodge, for a couple of nights at one of the smaller National Parks, but with the promise of plenty of game. We'll also spend a day visiting Udzungwa National Park - mountains, forests and waterfalls with endemic primates and birds.

Next we head another 280km to the south-west and then spend time in and around Ruaha National Park, the largest in Tanzania at more than 20,000km². We'll start at Ruaha Hilltop Lodge which promises spectacular views over the plains and plenty to see and do. We'll then head to Tandala Tented Camp and probably just sit on our veranda and watch the comings and goings at the waterhole below. There's the tantalizing possibility of Painted Wolves (Wild Dogs) there in the back of my mind.

Finally in the Ruaha area, we'll spend a few days in the park at Mdonya Old River Lodge, right in the heart of the park for epic game drives in a true wilderness.

Finally, we fly from Ruaha to what is, for me at least, potentially the highlight of the trip. We're heading to Lake Manze in Nyerere National Park - the new park formed from the northern part of the Selous Game Reserve. The park is newly formed, but the Selous reserve (all 54,000km² of it - if it was a country, it would be somewhere between Croatia and Costa Rica, about two-and-a-half times the size of Wales). The Selous forms one of the last great wildernesses in Africa. I'm looking forward to the game drives and the possibility of a boat trip on the lakes and rivers looking for birds.

As you may be able to tell, I'm pretty excited to be returning to the Dark Continent once more and getting the camera back into action.

The Zambia Report

This one is ready in record time. I wrote the entire text of the journal for our epic trip to Zambia while I was there and finished it on the plane on the way back. To sum up:

ZAMBIA IS AWESOME!!

I saw everything I could hope to see, so many mammals and such good views that I'm overwhelmed by the whole trip and the destination. South Luangwa is the best National Park I've visited in Africa, both in terms of the range of game and also in the quality and frequency of sightings - even in what is considered the quiet season.

The trip report starts HERE...

I've also finished the book of the trip and the first copies are already on their way from the printers. Here's the preview as usual.

Zambia 2019

By David Kinrade