News
04/01/2012 STUNNING GALLERIES NOW ON VIEW
A New Years treat for everyone! Click on the Gallery button on the top of the page and have a look at some mouth-watering images from recent tours. We'll keep adding more sets from now on in, and ironing out the odd glitch...
Customers - contact Fiona (fiona@greentours.co.uk) if you would like to see a set of your photos from a Greentours trip up in the Gallery
15/12/2011 Lake Van – Earthquakes and Iris gatesii
Firstly though, news on Lake Van post Earthquake. All the hotels we use on the tour survived fully intact, even the Tuşba which is in Edremit, epicentre of the largest aftershock. Our drivers and their families are all safe and sound too. Our thoughts are with the people who have lost loved ones and homes. The aftershocks have steadily diminished.
16/11/2011 Paradise - News from Papua New Guinea
Quite simply, it is like being on a different planet. This applies equally to the cultural experience as to the natural world. Our trip took in some of the World’s finest wildlife and cultural lodges with enough time to enjoy them to the full. The highlights from this year’s tour were many and varied – for a full (and long!) account please see the trip report which I hope to have available on the website before the end of November. Here are just a few…
15/11/2011 Giant Pandas and Red Pandas in the Wild!
We had been told to stay absolutely still and quiet amid beautiful ridgetop forest. A few minutes earlier a large female Giant Panda had emerged just metres in front of two of us back-markers – the trackers had known the panda’s general location but none of us had anticipated her sudden appearance amongst us. We were still clambering up the steep slope and those in front of us two rather stunned back-markers were still pushing up the slope so the panda soon became aware of us and after twenty seconds or so she melted back into the bamboo, amazingly silent for such a big heavy-looking animal. Back to the scene. I think six out of the nine of us saw this panda. Rolf and the trackers wanted to see where she had gone, so we were told to stay put and they would try and relocate her. So we sat or stood quietly peering into the bamboo or through the trees. I’d just realised that the dark-looking rock on a cliff on the opposite side of the valley was a Goral when there was a slight hiss behind me. I turned to see Hilary and a Giant Panda no more than three metres apart!
15/11/2011 AUTUMN RAINS IN JORDAN
Rain has been falling in Jordan! OK, not everyone’s idea of good news, but for our tour starting on November 24th this is very good news. There has been good autumn rains this year and with precipitation forecast over the next few days we think that this is going to be the year to visit Jordan if you want to see autumn bulbs (and of course, Petra!). The hills, olive groves and wadis of this beautiful country can expect a good showing of the various Colchicum, Crocus and Biarum species. But you'd better contact us quickly to snap up the last places in our group and on the flights!
16/09/2011 News from the South Africa Tour
These amazing pictures of the Long-proboscid Fly (Prosoeca sp) pollinating Babiana framesii were taken yesterday by Callan Cohen on our current South Africa Tour. More news on a fabulous floral show this year in forthcoming days….
16/09/2011 Back from Costa Rica Through the Lens
I just had to put this up!
'Dear Ian, witnessed a mass spawning on the last morning at Bosque del Cabo! 1000s of Red-eyed Parachuting Leaf Frogs - they actually bent a 3m tree into the water there were so many.
cheers
Chris
Chris Gardner has just returned from his successful Costa Rica Through the Lens trip, and emailed this to us. We thought you would like to see it too! Expect more photos and a report shortly.
16/03/2011 Highlands of Mexico – a photographer’s perspective by Greentours Customer Nigel Sawyer
Well I was looking for somewhere to go and Ian had said the Highlands of Mexico was a “…very good tour for photography” and so what choice was there? Obviously none and so I booked. It was a good decision. Apart from the minor hiccup of an unscheduled night stop over in Prestwick, Scotland due to a heavy landing for a medical emergency and therefore getting to Mexico 24 hours later than planned, the trip went almost without a hitch. The weather proved to be wonderful with bright blue sunny skies every day, although cool at night, dawn and dusk, and the plants and animals were all better than expected. There was the obligatory exception to the rule with the turtles misbehaving and unfortunately none hatched whilst we were at Playa Mescales.
16/03/2011 Central India Tour Highlights 2011 by Phil Benstead
Always an exciting trip for mammals, this year's Central India trip really came up trumps with sightings of both wolf and striped hyaena in Gujarat and of course the majestic Bengal tiger at Kanha. Add in the incredible atmosphere of India, great food and abundant birdlife and you can see why this trip is always so enjoyable.
07/03/2011 China - spoilt for choice
It is no coincidence that many of the world’s most famous and most successful ‘plant hunters’ headed for China. Though it may vie with Brazil and Mexico for accolade of most diverse flora there can be no denying that when it comes to choice flowers, whether they be alpines or hardy shrubs, then China wins hands down. China is home, often the only home, to an incredibly high percentage of many of the choicest genera. Around three –quarters of all Primulas, Louseworts and Corydalis are found within its borders.
31/01/2011 Terry in Western Australia
Terry Underhill gives us a brief but colourful insight into his 2009 visit to Western Australia.
14/01/2011 Paeonia clusii on the Lefka Ori
The highlight of the 2010 tour was the hundreds of clumps of Paeonia clusii either side of the track leading up on to the Lefka Ori, producing thousands of perfect saucer-sized white flowers, each with a golden boss of stamens in the centre. A wonderful sight!
05/01/2011 Copper Canyon 2010 - News from the Tour
“it’s not really bigger than the Grand Canyon because its man-made” was possibly one of the most obscure lines I’ve ever heard, emanating from a man viewing a vast panorama of canyon lands and standing six-thousand feet above the canyon floor. It made us glance anew at the scene in front of us. The oddest thing about this utterance was not the incorrect information but the fact that there was only one sign of human action on the landscape in front of us, a barely discernible shack half-way down the slope below. We could only wonder what on Earth he meant!
