We thought you may be interested to hear that Rob is going to be at the Dallas Safari Club on the 7th January 2010 for a few days, and at the Houston Safari club the following week-end. He hopes to catch up with you then but in the mean time heres what he has been up to.
Rob has been doing a lot of traveling over the past few months, in June we went up to Kenya to celebrate Robs 70th birthday. We had a marvelous trip organized by Mark and Kerry, Rob was able to spend time with his 4 grandchildren, Angus, Toby, Rufous and Daisy. We had a memorable time in many lovely locations including the Aberdare National Park, Kerry and Jamies Ranch, in Laikipia and time in Nairobi with Mark and Tones in their beautiful home.
Rob, whose other passion in life is birds, has been working on the bird list for Ruaha Park for many years, and is now writing the annotated list, which will be a very valuable asset for the Park. This is a time consuming job, but it is now nearing completion. We were also delighted that an unknown bird that Rob and I discovered some 7 years ago here in Ruaha has finally been accepted as a new species, we are delighted to call it the Ruaha Chat. This is the second new species we have found here.
In September, we went on a very interesting safari to central Tanzania with some friends, this was ostensibly a ‘birding’ safari as the area encompasses some large mountains called the Rubehos which is one of the dividing lines between eastern and western species. This was new country for us, not only did we find many interesting birds, but we stayed in some old historical towns, in original Mission houses built in the very early 1900s.
In October, Rob and I went on several safaris within the park, not only confirming bird species for the park list but looking at the plants and vegetation as well, as I am writing a book on the flora of Ruaha. Ruaha is a huge park at 22,220 sq km, (roughly the same size as Switzerland), only a quarter of it is used by tourists the rest is totally untouched. The Park is then further surrounded by Game Reserves, so the total ecosystem is well over 50,000 sq km with very varied vegetation and habitat. It is a fascinating area, sitting on the convergence zone of northern and southern species of both flora and fauna. We never tire of exploring this vast untouched wilderness.
At the end of October Rob drove up to Nairobi, which is a 4 day drive from our camp, he had things to organize there before heading off to Italy to work at the foundry. He had a productive time working on waxes and a new lioness piece. He flew back via Nairobi again, and spent time with Mark, Kerry and the grandchildren before embarking on the 4 day drive back to camp. He was glad to be back in Ruaha after the long 5 week trip.
On the 28th November, we went on another safari with our friends, Liz and Jobst De Leyser, this time up to the Livingstone Mountain area north of Lake Malawi. We stayed with an old friend of Robs, David Doig, who lives on a wonderful farm which is at 9,000ft, with magnificent views and amazing wild flowers. We then went along the Poroto Mountains, and dropped down to almost sea level to Lake Nyasa (Malawi). Here we stayed in a lovely guest house right on the ‘beach’ and were able to watch the local fishermen out in their dug-out canoes, and enjoy a general ‘coastal’ feel despite being thousands of miles inland. We returned along the Tanzania/Malawi boarder road which was extremely steep country, with massive drops to the deep valleys below. It was a little used road and due to very heavy rain the night before we were lucky to get through, but Rob put his expert ‘safari rally’ driving techniques to good use and we managed to sail through the very, sticky, tricky sections without mishap!
We will return to camp for the next few weeks until Rob leaves again to go to his exhibits in Texas in the new Year.
