Night time newts…..

It has just gone midnight.  The air is warm and still and there is the sound of gentle raindrops caressing the ground outside.  Male tawny owls are issuing their haunting calls, vying for their territories and distant blackbirds are singing.  It is a secret magical time.  I feel at peace with the world, it has …

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The mysterious wildlife of the Nazca lines

After another long bus ride I am sitting in a café in the hot, dusty desert town of Nazca.  It is mid-late afternoon.  There are flowering acacia trees, Latin music blasting from every corner of the plaza, political banners and demonstrations, car horns and hundreds of people enjoying their Saturday.  This is what I love …

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Day 8: the end of the expedition……

An uneventful trip back to Medan is followed by a further seven days of travel, of  meetings and of forming new elephant conservation research partnerships. The first is a trip to Banda Aceh to meet colleagues at the Universitas Syiah Kuala.  Banda Aceh is a clean and bright coastal town famous for the 2004 tsunami which was the first …

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