gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

Olive Baboons were a common site in most savanna areas like Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls NPs .

Bold and inquisitive, habituated baboons, especially mature males can be quite dangerous with larger incisor teeth than a Lion, but in most areas where they occur we were confined to the vehicles.

Patas Monkeys occur in savanna areas and are more often seen on the ground than in trees.

Patas Monkeys habitually stand on their hind legs to scan for predators. As primates moved out of the forest into the newly formed savannas millions of years ago, this behaviour may have led to the evolution of bi-pedalism in our earliest hominid ancestors.

Vervet Monkeys are another typical primate of acacia dominated savanna.

We saw these Blue Monkeys in the Budongo and Bwindi forests.

Red-tailed Monkeys are restricted to the Congo region reaching their easternmost point in western Uganda.

Guereza (or Eastern Black-and -white) Colobus always look like a collection of wise old men surveying the scene below.

This Grey-cheeked Mangaby has an infant clutched to her chest.

The pretty little L’Hoest’s Monkey was a real treat at Kibale and Bwindi.

Seeing Chimpanzees at close range was one of the highlights of the trip. Their is real intelligence in their eyes. The chimps at Kibale are completely used to humans and just go on their way and ignore you.

One of several adult chimps we saw in the late afternoon. apparently it is scanning the tree tops looking for a place to build a nest for the night.

Probably the best experience of the trip, if not the best experience of any trip, was the hour spent with the Eastern Gorillas at Bwindi. This silverback, the dominant male of the group, was completely indifferent to us.

His ‘second in command’, a black-backed male, however watched us closely. When the troupe moved off we followed, but the black-back took up the rear and stayed behind us. There was no suggestion of aggression from these gentle giants, except when a our guide cut a branch with a machete to allow for better photos. The black-back did a mock charge, teeth bared and the guide sensibly withdrew.

As you would expect, the young Gorillas were the most active.

Most of the time the group just lay about, digesting their last meal and farting loudly.

As Sir David Attenborough famously said ‘there is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a Gorilla than with any other animal I know’

Guy and Suzie with six month old Lila

Bronwyn holds her latest grandchild.

Off to Cornwall, Lila prepares for the long drive to see her auntie and uncle.

John and Margaret. Plenty of reminisces of the old times and lots of updates about life today.

John wanted to see the Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, so on the 27th we picked up Amber, who was at a loose end, and went for a walk around the ancient structure.

Amber’s is looking like a typically bored teenager but actually she is very knowledgeable about all things archaeological and told us in detail how the the hill fort would have been defended in ancient times.

About the only other social event has been a drink with John and Anita and Gio and Jessica at the Harbour Heights Hotel on 24th

There is a wonderful view from the hotels terrace, note the fog covering the Purbecks.

Time to admire the lovely sunset over Poole Harbour

I ordered an Opel but the good people at Munich airport hired out a lovely BMW X1, in the words of Bruce Springsteen ‘a big foreign car that drives like paradise’

From Munich we drove south through the narrow ‘neck’ of Austria to Italy then back eastwards into southern Austria. From here we drove through the Dolomites to Bolzano and south to Lake Garda, Bologna, Florence, San Marino, Ravenna, the Po Delta and Venice. Then we drove to far eastern Austria to see Margaret’s sister before returning to Munich via Salzburg and Dachau.

We drove from Munich through the narrow ‘neck’ of Austria into Italy and then back eastwards into southern Austria. We met Graham Tebb, a Viennese birder who I know from a trip to Ethiopia in 2011. The following day we tackled this mountain in the hope of seeing Rock Partridge. All Graham and I got for five hours of exhausting scrambling across the slope was a couple of distant call notes. It was to put it mildly, exhausting work.

The southern Alps are in Austria but just over the border in Italy is the geologically unique Dolomites. I was surprised to find that we were very close to the site of my troubled hiking holiday to this region that I made in 2006. This lake is just south of the town of Dobbacio.

The area around Tre Cime (three chimneys) has outstanding scenery but views like this gave Margaret a severe attack of vertigo so we had to leave in a hurry.

We visited Bolzano to see the famous Ice Man museum. A 5,200 year old body was found frozen in ice on the Italian-Austrian border and the body and all the artifacts found with it are preserved in this museum. Using modern reconstruction techniques, this a model of what the man, known as locally as Otzi would have looked like.

Although Lake Garda was undoubtedly beautiful, the entire northern section consisted of tunnel after tunnel, with nowhere to stop and enjoy the view. We had to stop at this hotel for a coffee to see this stunning panorama.

The guide book gave three warnings about driving in Italy: the price of fuel, which we agree is excessive, the standard of driving which we found, on the whole, to be ok and problems in parking ,which we certainly experienced in the ancient city of Bologna.

And then it was over the Apennines to the tiny independent principality of San Marino, my 99th country. The eponymous capital is perched precariously on a hill overlooking Italy which completely surrounds this tiny nation.

North along the Adriatic coast to Ravenna and the stunning mosaics in ancient Byzantine churches.

Just north of Ravenna is the delta of the River Po and the site of some excellent birdwatching areas. We spent two mornings and an evening watching Flamingos, Spoonbills Pygmy Cormorants, ducks, waders, terns and other waterbirds, whilst Golden Orioles and Turtle Doves appeared in nearby woodland. At night we saw a Scops Owl just yards from our hotel.

Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in Venice. Visiting Venice was hot and crowded but so very, very worthwhile.

Venice get 14 million visitors a year and most seem to arrived on the same day as us. Long queues in the heat to get into San Marco were inevitable.

Well I missed Rock Partridge and didn’t get to the Moltoni’s Warbler area so was the trip tickless? In 2007 in the Dolomites I thought I had seen the recently split Italian Sparrow but close observation this year showed that most in that area were intergrades with House Sparrow. So these pure Italian Sparrows, seen from Bolzano southwards and east to Venice, were really a lifer. Note the brown cap, white not grey cheeks and the solid black bib.

From Venice it was a long drive to the Austrian-Hungarian border where Margaret’s sister Cathy lives. As the border is at the bottom of her garden, we spent as much time in Hungary, whilst there, as we did in Austria. Here Margaret and Cathy admire a Hungarian church. Birding in the area was excellent even at this time of year. More of that later!

Salzburg Castle overlooks the town. We stayed here on our final night before driving through Bavaria to Munich.

With time to spare before our flight we visited the memorial site of the Dachau concentration camp just north of Munich. It could hardly be called entertainment, but the sensitive handling by the museum of one of the darkest periods in human history was informative and sobering. We think everyone should visit a site like this in memory of all those who died so needlessly. The lettering on the gate reads ‘work makes you free’.

BBQ at Boscombe beach

Low evening sun combined with smoke from the BBQs was dazzling.

Anita playing frisbee

Amber with her boyfriend Zak and Kara go swimming – far too cold for me.

Amber, Zak and Kara shivering post dip.

On Sunday Margaret and I enjoyed listening to a range of music on Poole Quay …..

… before joining John and Anita and friends for a drink at the Portsmouth Hoy.