We left a lovely warm Cambridge mid morning on my birthday (7/8/14) and headed to Heathrow where we boarded the 5pm, American Airlines, flight to New York and started our journey to Peru. Our transit through New York was effortless - save for a dearth of immigration officers when we arrived in the almost empty immigration hall. The one on the visitors section was packing up and leaving, the lady who points people to the free desks was looking particularly flummox...

We have just completed six days in Austria - John's choice as he wanted to visit the place he last went to 50 years ago. Needless to say it was a little more developed but equally as lovely. We spent our week cycling via the lake (today's photo) at Zell em See to Kaprun - we did this trip twice, once with a small group and once on our own. On the first trip we did the last part from the lake to Kaprun on our own while the guide returned with the Scottish couple ...

Our last full day of holiday - started as usual with tea and flapjack to our tent. After breakfast we jumped in the jeep to see if we could find the roan which the riders had seen -as we passed the end of the runway we saw two sand grouse taking in the sun. After a further 40 minutes or so - success- we found one lone roan with beautiful facial markings, it allowed us a perfect sighting through binoculars but then headed into the bushes - so no photograph - we ...

We packed up and after breakfast left fly camp and headed up stream passed a couple of grumpy hippos to an island where we walked for an hour and a half - seeing good herds of zebra and wildebeest along with a pair of secretary birds - the walking here was much easier and enjoyable - it was more open and the grasses shorter and less prickly. On the way back the hippos were even more grumpy with the male marking his territory with frantic swishing of his tail and ...

A nice tray of tea, with mugs, and flapjack arrived at 0600 to wake us up. We then headed to mess for a light breakfast before going on a walk, with James and Paul, at 7.00am. To get to the start point we got in the jeep and passed the carcass enroute; this time we saw a hyena feeding while actually standing inside the massive head and neck cavity and one was lolloping off - no doubt full. The riders left for fly camp where we were all going to spend the night w...