The Humpback Whale that we tried to see on Sunday was seen again the last two days at Zuidpier. On Monday it even made a big jump that was caught on camera. Have a look at the great pictures and video at Inge’s web-log.
Today we visited IJmuiden after seeing on waarneming.nl that for the last three days they have been spotting a Humpback Whale just 20 meters from the South Pier. We weren’t lucky today and didn’t see it, but we did see some great birds, including three new lifers (Black-legged Kittiwake, Red Knot and Pomarine Skua)!
The Dutch government is investigating the possibility of building an island off the North Sea coast for highly needed new farmland in our overcrowded country. Dutch contractors also built the Palm Islands in Dubai. Political party CDA suggested this week to build an island in the shape of a tulip. I’m not sure how practical this would be, but it would sure look cool on Google Maps:
Last weekend was our annual family weekend and this time we had rented a large house in Neede in the east of the Netherlands. We had a great time. On Saturday we drove to Eibergen where we did a boat tour (see our route) on an authentic Berkelzomp. Here’s a photo of my family on the boat, taken by the friendly captain Hugo.
On 24 August, the day before we visited the Vogelfestival this year, we went to the city of Giethoorn, which is known in the Netherlands as the “Venice of the North”. We got an electric boat from the many rental companies and made a two-hour tour around the city and adjacent nature area and lake. There were many boats out on this beautiful summer day, and on the lake we found a boat selling packaged ice creams! There was a girl on a small barge and an Ola freezer selling ice creams to passing boats:
We took pictures of 26 different species of birds on our holiday in Sharm El Sheikh and South Sinai last week, nine of which are lifers (bringing our grand total to 326). Here they are: More »
We took many taxis on our holiday in Egypt last week, most of them flagged down on the streets of Sharm El Sheikh. It’s always a big hassle to agree a price with the driver before you get in. You know from seeing official price lists and reading travel books and trip reports what constitutes a fair price, but still they laugh in your face if you mention anything near these prices and make you pay something many times more. More »
At Ras Mohamed National Park we saw this extremely cute “Do not feed the fish” sign. It’s the way the fish looks at the (mysterious object in the) hand that makes it a really funny sign, I think:
On Sunday 14 October we had our fourth diving day in the Red Sea (see our photo album of this trip) with Colona Divers and our guide David took us to Yolanda and Shark Reef for our first dive of the day. It took about an hour for our boat to arrive there from the Travco jetty in Sharm El Sheikh. The famous dive site (which is often listed among the top dive sites in the world!) is located at the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Ras Mohamed National Park, where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba flow into the Red Sea:
