| JULY |
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The first week of July my Summerbreak started and I went to Poland to visit some friends. I stayed at the farmhouse of Anna and Piotr Paluszkiewiecz in the hamlet of Lubc Maly, not far from Krzyz Wielkopolski. They have a small campsite and a lovely guesthouse. Piotr knows a lot of people in this region and one day he asked me if I was interested in photographing European Bisons in the wild. Of course I was...! Somewhat north of Anna and Piotrs place there have been Bisons introduced in vast forests. One place I already knew but this time we went to the Drawsko Forest and met Maciej Tracz. He is a member of the Pommeranian Nature Society and responsible for the reintroducing of European Bisons in this part of Poland. We went with him and his little dog into the forest and found a herd of Bisons after about looking for three quarters of an hour.  This herd contained around 27 animals, mostly cows and 7 calves. We were able to approach them up to 25 meters. I put my tripod as low as possible and took pictures from a low point of view. See picture below.  I hope to come back in the future to picture these remarkable animals, Europe's largest landmammal. I wouldn't mind going in wintertime during snowfall.... Half July Ellie and I went on vacation together and we flew to the northern part of Sulawesi. Via Singapore we went to Manado. During this flight the weather was clear, so we could see the landscapes beneath us. Flying across the island of Borneo we were astonished to see how much rainforest was cut; a constant sight of large clearcuts of what once was a place, famous for its vast pristine rainforests.... Nature destruction is going extremely rapidly in this part of the world. When approaching Sulawesi it looks quite green at first sight, but most of the trees were planted palmtrees. Only some naturereserves and national parks still hold patches of rainforest. We were picked up at the airport by Roel, who owns a dive-resort south of Manado, called Lumbalumba Diving. We had a great time here: Roel and his wife Juud are fantastic hosts, their lodging (beautiful wooden bungalows) are very cozy, the food is great and the diving at Bunaken National Park was awesome! What we liked very much about this place was the small scale of it (just 5 bungalows, so no loads of tourists), the beautiful gardens, the fact that the owners provide work for a lot of families from the neighbouring kampung. I can recommend this place to everyone(see: links).  view from our bungalow.... As I already mentoned: the diving was awesome. Every morning at 8.30 hours the divingvessel left the small pier , usually for the trip across the bay towards the small archipelago of Bunaken. Here you can find reefs with an incredible diversity of seelife: corals (soft and hard) galore! That goes also for fish, turtles, nudybranches, sponges, etc. Just before we left Holland I bought an Olympus PEN camera with underwaterhouse, to be able to make some pictures of the underwaterworld here and, later, in Papua Barat. Despite the fact that I didn't bought a flash, I still made some pictures worth showing. Sometimes I gave the camera to my divingbuddy (one of the Indonesian divemasters) and asked him to make some pictures of me, like the next one:  Turtle encounter at divesite Lekuan 1, Bunaken NP During 8 days we went out every day and made 2 dives each day. Ellie was snorkelling and the downfall of being not far from a city like Manado was the amount of plastic in the sea. On some days it was really bad and she had to work her way through plastic bags and such. Plastic is indeed one of the major threats to marine life on our planet. While diving I didn't see much plastic but the local authorities have to be much more aware of this problem, not only for the benefits of nature but also for their own economic concerns: Bunaken NP and Lembeh Strait attracks a lot of divers from all over the world who like to experience the miracles of an underwaterworld with still one of the highest biodiversities you can imagine.  After a week of great diving we said goodbye to Roel, Juud and the Indonesian crew and took a taxi to the Tangkoko Nature Reserve, where we stayed 3 days. Highlights here were our walks through the rainforest and our encounters with Black Macaques, Red-knobbed Hornbills and Tarsiers. Pictures of these animals and more you can see under Portfolio on the site, in the album RECENT PICTURES. |