Three days to go...

7-12-10   Three days to go and we are in a frenzy.

This is the first time we will go on a birding vacation during the worst of the tourist season. We went to Texas in September. We went to Mexico in October. Vancouver in September. Florida in October. The point was to avoid large groups of summer vacationers, families with school aged kids who disturb the birds. In 3 days we are heading to Iceland in the middle of July. We are scared of noisy crowds of boisterous holiday-makers and those huge shiny tourist buses. So we'll head into the sticks...

The back country of Iceland is sparsely populated, so nice places to stop may be few. What we do in situations like this is fill our cooler with drinks, buy some bread or crackers, put fruit in a tupperware container in the cooler, and get some ham or peanut butter to make sandwiches. This way we can stay out at the cliffs, or stay at an isolated lake, without being forced to come back in, just to eat.

One of the disagreeable aspects of observing thousands of birds where they roost is the horrible smell. Bird poo drooling down the side of the nesting spot. We carry a small jar of Vick's Vapo-rub which has a kind of medicinal odor. We place a small dab under each nostril. That way we can visit places we normally wouldn't and still be comfortable.

I read some lady's blog. She is in Iceland and mentioned ash clouds. Ash clouds. I purchased a box of those paper medical protective masks. I have enormous sinus problems anyway.

We went thru security at Boston Logan one time before. We were birding in New England. One of the Homeland Security brainiacs who let the islamic terrorists on the planes in Boston did not know what my spotting-scope was. True story. He peered into the end of it and asked me to open it up. I can't. "What is it," he asked. A spotting-scope. And then, "What do you "spot" with it?". "Birds..." I said. We get to do that again.

Travelling with a computer. The electrical system in Europe is different from the American. Instead of frying my laptop, I bought a Euro-US electrical adapter fitted with two large round prongs. Going through security, I will carry my spotting-scope "bazooka" and Berry will tote this laptop past the Homeland Security folks.

-Robert