ZECO TRAVEL TALK

From the capital, Antananarivo, our expedition began in earnest with a domestic flight to the remote town of Maroansetra, gateway to Madagascar’s most extensive wilderness of the Masoala Peninsula. A boat excursion along the backwaters of the Antainambalana River in the afternoon offered insights into the way of life of the rural Malagasy, along with a fine male panther chameleon, but the day’s highlight was undoubtedly our spectacularly successful quest for nocturnal creatures around the Relais de Masoala. This nocturnal foray with our intrepid local guide, Julian, is usually fairly productive but no previous Eco-Expeditions group had ever managed to see the most elusive and bizarre of all lemurs, the legendary aye aye. A short walk into a coconut plantation brought us to the spot where this strange creature was foraging, clambering around the crown of a tree. We were able to appreciate all the unusual features of this remarkable animal, from its enormous ears and peculiar face to its bushy tail and skeletal middle finger. This fortuitous sighting was to set up our record-breaking lemur tally for the trip.

Other trip highlights included fimbriated leaf-tailed geckos, brilliant green-backed mantellas, boisterous white-fronted brown lemurs, and a bonus sighting of black-and-white ruffed lemurs resting in the crown of an enormous wild fig tree. A nocturnal spotlighting excursion produced sightings of nocturnal lemurs in the form of eastern woolly lemurs and the recently described Goodman’s mouse lemurs, as well as an incredible five species of chameleons.

Our visit illustrated Madagascar’s remarkable natural diversity, with fascinating wildlife, breathtaking landscapes and cultural interactions en route—our pilgrimage to the eighth continent was an enriching experience.

Excerpts from the Welcome Home Letter written by Expedition Leader Jonathan Rossouw for our September 2008 Madagascar: The Eighth Continent expedition.

On Thursday, October 30, 2008 CBC-TV premiers a four-part series, The Adventurers, which follows modern-day explorers as they search for vanishing populations and cultures. Zegrahm lecturer and archaeologist, Edmundo Edwards, is the focus of the November 13th episode. Armed with the knowledge that the French Polynesian islands were once the home of thriving native populations—until European diseases tragically wiped them out—Edmundo set out into the interior jungles of Tahiti, Raivavae, and the Marquesas Islands where he discovered a vine-covered realm of stone cities and structures never before seen by the outside world. Program repeats on Thursday, November 20 at 10 p.m. on CBC Newsworld.

Little John, our Expedition Leader, had tried to prepare us for our Cook Islands visit…It is one of his favorite places and as we stepped on shore it was clear why. The small atoll, barely seven miles across, is a white sand, blue water, palm tree paradise. We have all heard of paradise described this way before, but the difference here were the wonderful people, 39 of them, living on the island. With such a small population, we pretty much met almost every inhabitant of this remote treasure. The kids crowded around us, and since they spoke English we could easily converse with them about their home.

The dance performance by the children was touching. Their parents and the mayor of Palmerston stood behind them while they swayed to the music and sang a very simple song. Afterwards the kids and their parents took us for a tour and we walked the impeccably clean sand “streets,” and went by their church, mayor’s house, and school. We also saw a bit of wildlife on the island—blue-footed boobies were being raised by a family and several young fluffy chicks sat watching us, keeping warm in the morning sun.

In the afternoon, after some spectacular drift snorkeling and diving in the reef surrounding Palmerston, some of us caught glimpses of a whale. We tried to snorkel with the whale but it didn’t seem in the mood to play and continued to dive up and down every seven minutes or so.

We returned to our lovely ship, the Clipper Odyssey, feeling like the Cook Islands were the beginning of paradise, and as we went to sleep I think we all had the children’s song playing in our heads:

“Welcome to Palmerston, we know this is where you want to be… white sands beaches and blue oceans and swaying palm trees. The island boys playing the ukulele….”

Zegrahm Expeditions is proud to announce that not one but two of our travelers recently received ‘Highly Honored’ awards in the Nature’s Best 2008 Photography Competition. Our congratulations go out to Andy Crosthwaite and John Conrad whose images were chosen from over 20,000 entries.

Both award-winning images were taken on our October 2007 March with the Penguins expedition and, by pure coincidence, Andy and John shared a cabin on that voyage!

Andy’s image was captured on a visit to an emperor penguin rookery on Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. Hiking into the rookery, they witnessed a large number of emperor penguins clustered in groups tending to chicks of all ages. Some of these were approximately half the size of the adults, but many were much smaller, and the tiniest were still on their parent’s feet.

John’s image—an emperor penguin chick under an adult and facing the wrong way—was also captured on Snow Hill Island. While everyone in the group was trying to capture chicks perched on the feet of an adult, John saw this image and jumped for joy. Not surprisingly, John’s Highly Honored image is in the category of “Animal Antics.”

Both images will be published in the Fall 2008 Nature’s Best Photography Magazine and were selected for an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC that will run from November 22, 2008 until May 3, 2009.

Our 2008 Ultimate Botswana expedition was a record-breaker in two ways:

First, we saw a total of 15 different leopards on the trip which more than doubles the previous record of seven. It really wasn’t that long ago that leopards were considered to be the most elusive of the large game animals to see—and to a large extent this is still true. However, there are certain special places where leopards are regularly seen now and Chitabe is one of them. In the past Chitabe was a hunting concession and when I first started visiting in the early 90s, the animals were extremely shy of the vehicles and seldom seen. Now it can be considered one of Africa’s leopard “hotspots,” thanks to the great effort on the part of conservationists and tourism operations which has resulted in the intact survival of this wildlife haven.

Also, as far as I can remember, this was the first time that we have seen the so-called “Big Seven:” lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, elephant, wilddog and cheetah on one Ultimate Botswana trip. Usually it is one or two rhino, cheetah, or wild dogs which eludes us, but this time we saw the lot and not only saw them but had great quality viewing as well!

A total of 47 mammals were seen, with the greatest variety at Chitabe (34 species). Between myself and the rest of the group we saw over 200 bird species which isn’t too bad for a group that had no really serious birders.

As interesting as these stats are, this is not what it is really all about. The special thing about this trip is that we had sufficient time to spend quality periods of time watching the animals behaving in front of us.

Excerpts from the Welcome Home Letter written by Expedition Leader Lex Hes for our October 2008 Ultimate Botswana expedition.

In an effort to promote the understanding and preservation of the unique cultural heritage and fragile environments of the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, Zegrahm lecturer and Explorers Club member Edmundo Edwards of Easter Island, along with Lynn Danaher of Friday Harbor, Washington, have created the Pacific Islands Research Institute (PIRI), a 501c3 non-profit. Joined by Dr. Nancy Sullivan, also an Explorers Club member of Madang, Papua New Guinea, Edmundo established camps and contacts with the local people of the Upper Karawari region of Papua New Guinea—the tribe whose lifestyle and culture they plan to further study. They also completed a study of the remarkable cave paintings in the area. In 2009 they will return to a more remote valley to study and make “first contact” with the Meakambut tribe of hunter-gathers to record and film their rituals, cave paintings, and the everyday life of this pristine culture.

The long-term plan for PIRI is to impart knowledge of the special environments, history, and varied cultures of the Pacific islands through a series of educational programs— including slideshow lectures, documentary films, and photography exhibits. Current efforts are focused on the some of the most remote islands of the Pacific: Raivavae, in the Austral Group, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and Papua New Guinea. To date, a documentary film about Raivavae and Papua New Guinea is in post-production and they are compiling a collection of more than 8,000 photographs into an ethnographic record of Raivavae and the cave paintings of Papua New Guinea. Edmundo’s 35 years of research on Rapa-Nui will be translated from Spanish, his native tongue, into English. Future plans include offering lecture presentations and film documentation to the general public and school groups with the committed belief that education is the only means toward understanding the importance of preservation and continued research in these remote isolated environments. The PIRI web page is currently under construction but the address will be www.pacificislandsresearchinstitute.org.

For questions, more information or to make a contribution, please call or email Lynn Danaher, President, PIRI @ tel: 360-378-6692 or e-mail: islandlynx@aol.com

Besides it being volcanic, I didn’t really know what to expect from our visit to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. I have seen volcanic islands in other parts of the world, and each seemed to have its own, surprising beauty.

The first impression of Lanzarote’s landscape was breathtaking. As we headed into the interior of the island, it was one of those perfect days that seem to only happen in maritime locations. A layer of small, fast moving clouds raced along with the prevailing northerlies. Alternating sunlight and shadow moved up and down the volcanoes and across the open spaces between them. The soil was mostly black, but there were organic patterns of rust and yellow and brown and little bits of grass scattered throughout.

As we drove to the Timanfaya National Park, an extensive range of volcanoes and volcanic scenery, our guide spoke of the influence of César Manrique, an artist and native of Lanzarote who briefly moved to New York City to pursue the arts. When he returned to the island in 1966, just as it was beginning to develop its tourism industry, Manrique was shocked to find the vulgar development taking place. He immediately set about pressuring the local government and marshalling his influential friends to enforce strict building controls on the island. These controls continue to exist today and keep Lanzarote picturesque and true to its heritage:

. All buildings are painted white, with green shutters in the countryside (for farmers) and blue by the sea (for the fishermen)
. No high rises (nothing taller than a Canarian palm)
. No billboards
. The size and scale of residential developments are also strictly limited

The result is a consistency throughout the island that isn’t often seen in a world where profit and rapid development take priority. Manrique also created a set of unique tourist attractions on the island, some of which are in Timanfaya National Park. He designed the national park’s devil logo and had a hand in laying out the roads through the park, with many twists and turns so as to minimize the visibly of other visitors. He also designed El Diablo, a UFO-inspired restaurant that sits in the middle of the park, perched on the volcanic rim.

There are also several interactive exhibits that demonstrate how hot the earth is just below your feet. A shovelful of gravel was almost too hot to handle… there was a pit about 6 feet deep that was hot enough to ignite vegetation that was tossed in, and a glass of water that was poured into a hole caused a 20-foot geyser to erupt about ten seconds later.

Another remarkable feature of the island is the unusual farming techniques that were developed to deal with the oppressive wind—and the fact that any usable soil lies about 3 feet below the surface. Farmers here have been highly successful in growing wine grapes in an unusual—and highly scenic—manner that helps the tender young vines survive the wind and storms.

Many said it was the best ever of the New York State Ornithological Association’s sixty annual meetings and one of the highlights was the inspirational talk delivered by Peter Harrison. His presentation “Seven Years and Seven Continents”—the incredible story of how he gathered data and made preliminary sketches of hundreds of sea birds for his identification bible of the past twenty-five years, Seabirds: An Identification Guide, touched many hearts in many ways. However, it was his message to the members of the newly fledged Young Birder’s Club that reached to the core of everyone there and was perhaps the most significant event of the weekend.

When Peter arrived in Rochester from Seattle, with only one morning to go birding, his greatest avian interest was in seeing some of our confusing fall Eastern wood warblers. Soon he would be in his own garden at Land’s End in England hoping to see at least one vagrant from the colonies. His brief birding time along Lake Ontario would be a great warm up for the impending migration in Europe.

Upon entering the “Owl Woods” in search of warblers, little did we know that a chance encounter was about to occur with the nucleus of a new young birder’s club from around the state. When introduced to the teenagers and their leader it was pointed out that Peter had indeed himself been a member of his own country’s youth birding association which had great impact upon his life. Peter quickly picked up on that and was soon communicating to the student pioneers what an important step forward they had made in charting the direction of their lives. Hope, a brilliant sixteen year old with identification skills to be much envied, and who had asked help from NYSOA in forming a state young birders club, was enthralled with the opportunity to talk with one of the world’s most renowned birders and it was clearly a moment to remember in her young life.

That evening when Peter delivered his presentation to an audience of nearly two hundred he took special care to single out Hope and her young companions. While he spoke to them directly at times everyone there understood and identified with his message. It was a memorable experience.

Following his talk the kids made a bee line for him from their table at the back of the room and each had their opportunity to personally thank and interact with him. It was very rewarding for us all to see the respect and warmth between them and will surely encourage the organization to work diligently to assure that this very special youth movement is nurtured and grows.