Introducing Bison in the Dutch Dunes

August 7, 2015August 7, 20151 Comment

After a week of anticipation in the dunes, we were excited to go and meet Yvonne and see the bison herd! Yvonne works for the European Rewilding Network and was the one who said that we could go ahead with our rewilding cycle tour. She has been really enthusiastic about our trip and helped us organise it by getting in touch with projects on our behalf.

We arrived at the office to meet her for the first time and she greeted us cheerily with open arms, inviting us in, introducing us to colleagues, telling us stories and asking about our journey so far. She’s exuberant and her enthusiasm is infectious! So off we went into the field together to try and find the bison, chattering about rewilding all the way.

In the overgrown dunes with Yvonne

National Park Zuid-Kennemerland is the area that houses the bison. It has an interesting history – and an interesting present – and not one that you’d usually associate with rewilding projects. When the private owners put the land up for sale, the local government bought it with view to it being used by the water company PWN. The original plan for part of the land was to use it for storing drinking water in the sand dunes. Thankfully this didn’t happen, and the land was then left as a nature area. PWN is still the land manager for large parts of the National Park, along with some other companies and individuals. Interestingly, PWN has a Nature Department and sets aside around 3% of their budget for nature projects, which is brilliant.

The National Park was largely open to the public except for an area in the south that was kept closed off. The closed off area used to be a dynamic dune system, but in the absence of large herbivores and people, the dunes were becoming increasingly vegetated. The vegetation stops the sand moving around and the dynamic dunes were made sedentary. The idea of bringing in large herbivores was to allow the dunes to move freely once again. Highland cattle and Konik horses are already used across Holland for natural grazing, but bison? Bison in the Dutch dunes?! The Director for Nature at PWN at the time was Piet Veel, who was instrumental is proposing and initiating the reintroduction of European bison here.

A local press article about the idea didn’t receive a single negative response, so ahead they went! And the results have been fantastic so far. It has been 8 years since the first animals arrived from Poland and the herd now comprises 24 animals, including 5 adorable calves that were born this summer.

The area where the bison now roam is the area that was closed off to the public. Not only is it now home to a bison herd, it is also no longer closed off to the public! There is a footpath through the bison enclosure that is open in the winter months, so people can walk along and hope to glimpse these majestic creatures. But don’t bring your dogs and don’t leave the trail! The bison are very relaxed around people who keep their distance and stay in sight.

The bison area is 330 hectares, which doesn’t sound that big, but the animals are surprisingly difficult to find. The dunes have lots of dips and hillocks, so you could be 50m away from the whole herd without knowing it! To help researchers and the public find the herd, one of the females has a GPS collar, so you can go online and track their movements every hour – very cool.

On our search for the bison, we also got to see some of the effects that the bison are having on the area.

The bison enclosure comprises different types of habitat. There are areas of open sand dunes, areas of scrub, some overgrown with trees, and a few patches of planted woodland. The effects that the bison are having are clear and beneficial. Bison love to take sand baths to scrub off insects, and the patches they use to wallow in get freed of vegetation. These sand patches are then used by lots of insects and amphibians – sand lizards even lay their eggs in them!

Bison also enjoy a good scratching post, so wherever there is a suitable branch, a sand patch emerges underneath it and the branch gets polished by bison bodies. When the post eventually buckles under the strain, the post is abandoned and pioneer plants enjoy colonising the free space.

Old wallowing patch growing back

Bison rubbing post

We walked for a few hours through the bison area, seeing where they were on the GPS tracking system and looking for traces of them on the ground. Then Yvonne spotted a small herd of fallow deer in the dunes! They’re shy so it was a pleasure to be able to watch them grazing and playing before they spotted us and bounded off into the distance. Then we crossed a sand patch and saw bison tracks! We could see where they’d walked, where they’d wallowed and where they’d relieved themselves. Onwards, to try and find them.

Fallow deer fleeing the humans

We headed through low, spiky scrub up a small rise, and looked out onto a sand flat where there was a small lake… and there was the whole bison herd! Neither of us had ever seen wild European bison before, so it was a fabulous first for us. There they were, some looking at us, just standing by the water, not fazed by our presence. They are gorgeous, gentle-looking creatures, with slim bodies, large heads and wide shoulders – oh, and sharp, solid horns! They have big brown eyes and such soft-looking fur. But Yvonne wasn’t keen on having one sedated just so that we could stroke it (such a spoil-sport).

Bison herd

Checking us out

Look how cute the little one is!

Suckling calf

We watched them for some time, seeing the calves drink and the adults ruminate. Then they started to move off for lunch and we did the same, retiring to a patch of woodland for a shady spot.

When we got back to the office we bumped into the legendary Piet and enjoyed chatting with him about the project over teas and coffees.

What a fabulous day. We’re looking forward to whatever the next few days have in store!

– Anna

Macun lakes

July 2, 2015August 4, 20151 Comment

We wanted to a do another big walk before leaving the Park, so we decided to climb up to the Macun basin. This is a large cirque at the top of a mountain above Zernez. A cirque is a circular depression at the head of a valley which is carved out by a glacier.

As promised, Ruedi picked us up in Zernez at 7.30 and drove us up the gravel track that forms the start of the trail for about 15 minutes. On the way we had really interesting chat about the park, and conservation.

Morning view of the mountain from Zernez

We found out that the reason we haven’t seen any clear cutting in Switzerland is that it’s not allowed. You are only allowed to cut single trees or small groups within a larger forest. The weight of felled trees must not exceed the weight of new trees that grow per year, so Switzerland’s forests should remain stable, and beautiful! Anna asked if that means Switzerland is a net importer of wood, but apparently not, it is a net exporter.

We mentioned again that there are no big predators in the National Park, so the deer are able to to browse the young trees with no fear of predation. This probably means that the forest is recovering slower than it would do if the deer were more stressed. Ruedi said that is true, but in the National Park they don’t like to think of the forest recovering, because that implies that there is a perfect state for it to be in. In fact, the forest cover has changed constantly during and before human history, and it will continue to do so. During the last ice age the majority of the park was covered with a huge glacier, and not much would have grown there at all. There is no right way for it to be. The deer and other browsers in the park maintain their habitat, and that’s fine. If wolves eventually make it back to the park, things will change, and that’s ok too.

Once we reached the timberline we jumped out, and there was time for a quick photo before Ruedi had to go to work. That’s the last time we’ll see him (on this trip anyway), and we had to agree that he couldn’t have been more supportive of our trip. He’s made sure we’ve seen a lot of the park, met some of the team and had a glimpse of some really interesting projects. He lent us his own binoculars and telescope so we could have a chance to see the wildlife. He also arranged for us to spend a night in the park essentially for free when he found out we’re on a tight budget. What a guy!

Ruedi and Anna (Zernez in background)

We got onto the footpath and walked up through the alpine meadow, in between the avalanche protection barriers. We heard marmots squeaking their warning calls into the cold morning air, and saw a chamois picking his way across the hillside. As we got higher we walked into the sunrise and immediately the chill was gone. Coats off! There was still some snow on the hill in pockets protected from the sun, and we had to carefully cross a few, kicking footholds with our boots.

We walked out of the meadow and into the scree, and the view opened out in front of us. We could see most of the park spread out beneath us, Piz Quattervals in the distance, and the Cluozza valley where we spent the night a few days ago. Up and up through the scree, following the markings sprayed onto the rocks.

View across the park

Eventually we reached the highest point on the rim of the cirque, Munt Baselgia at 2,945 m. As we looked into the cirque, with the scattered snow patches and the beautiful blue-turquiose lakes it was amazing the think of the whole basin, and the valleys around it filled with ice, and to think about the massive forces that carved out the basin as we saw it today.

Into the cirque

We found a billy can wedged in a cairn, and opening it, found a visitor’s book inside. It was cool looking through the entries over the last few years, everyone seems to have been very happy with their walk! We added our own outburst of gratitude and excitement, and replaced the book for the next traveller.

Signing the guestbook

We headed down into the basin and before long we hit the first big patch of snow. It was wet and deep in places but we had fun half-skiing across it. We met a group of four Swiss, who were all retired, and making the most of it. They were part of a hiking club and they put us to shame with both their kit and their pace!

Across the snow field

We stopped for lunch next to one of the lakes and swapped hiking stories (mostly about mosquitos and midges) with our Swiss friends.

Lunch stop lake

After lunch the trail split in two, with one option to go and see the “Dragon Lake”. Both paths rejoined later on. Anna stated quite confidently the direction we should go to see the lake, and, off guard, I assented. We walked past a lovely stream that was flowing out from under all the snow that was still hanging around on the higher parts of the basin.

Meltwater

As we got to a crossroads I realised that this was where the paths rejoined, and we’d actually gone the wrong way. D’oh! I was pretty annoyed with myself for falling for the Heslop “talk confidently and everyone will believe you” method AGAIN, and went charging off down the other path to see the Dragon Lake. Poor old Anna trailing along behind, not enjoying the extra climb we had to do. Once we got there Anna waited at one end of the lake while I went to the other end to get a photo of the lake with the glacier on the other side of the valley in the distance. In the end it wasn’t as good as the one that Anna took from her end, but I did have a lot of fun skiing down a particularly steep bit of snow, so it wasn’t wasted trip.

Dragon Lake from Anna’s end

Pushing through the snow

Reunited, Anna and I hiked out over the lip (the lower wall) of the basin into the massive glacial valley behind it. It was a looooong way down, over scree at first, then through flower-filled meadows and finally into the forest. We were checking for ibex all the way down, but sadly no luck. The views were spectacular though, and we were so glad we’d decided to go. On the way down through the forest we saw loads of nutcracker, and thankfully one of them stayed still enough to get a photo!

Alipne meadow in the valley

Nutcracker!

We also walked through an Alp, the cows either wanted feeding or wanted to kill us, we’re not sure.

Curious cows

We got into the town of Lavin and rushed to the train station for the train back to Zernez. We couldn’t decide the quickest way to the station, so we asked in a shop. The lady gave Anna very, very detailed directions. After which, Anna asked what time the next train to Zernez was. The answer? “Er, now”. Ah well, so we missed that one! We bought some melon in the shop and went up to the station to feast while we waited an hour for the next train. We decided it was pretty good though, we couldn’t do anything, so we didn’t have to feel bad about being lazy!

When the train arrived we took the short ride home, went to the shops and went back to cook dinner. We’re leaving Zernez and the National Park behind tomorrow as we cycle over the Albula Pass towards Chur. There we will pick up the River Rhine, which we will follow all the way to the Netherlands. Apparently it’s going to be hot tomorrow and we have to climb about 700 m up the pass so we want to get an early night and beat the heat!

– Dave

Anthill hunting

July 1, 2015July 1, 2015Leave a comment

Today we met Ruedi and the researchers at 7:30am and headed to the park to look for anthills. Anita knew what she wanted, but it took Dave and I a while to work it out. Sounds like it’s tricky being an ant expert!

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is not so good. Too small.”

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is not so good. Not enough larch trees around.”

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is not so good. The forest is too dense.”

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is not so good. It looks like they are abandoning it.”

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is no good. Wrong species of ant.”

“Hey Anita, here’s an ant nest!”. “Hmm, that one is not so good. Too close to the trail.”

The hypothesis for the project involves the ants preferring certain tree species over others, so the nest has to be in an area where there are at least larch and spruce. The drone can’t fly well in a dense forest, so it has to be a bit open. There need to be a lot of ants to spot on the trees and branches, so it has to be a big nest. The nest needs to remain in use for the duration of the project, so if there are plants growing in it, it’s probably going to be abandoned soon and therefore won’t be any good. And finally, if it’s too close to the trail, the presence of the trail may have unknown impacts on the behaviour and those factors need to be excluded, so it can’t be used either.

We headed out on the trail, Ruedi armed with a map of tree types (which the team had made on a previous project!). Then we’d leave the trail and spread out, walking off-road across moss, fallen trees and lots of blueberry plants in search of ants and their homes. When we found a suitable ant mound, Ruedi took a waypoint on the GPS and noted down the location.

Which way boss?

Off the trail

This one might be big enough

Off-roading gets tricky

On the way, we all had some interesting chats. The two post-graduate research interns Judith and Thomas are from Germany, so I managed to speak German for a day without having to constantly ask people to repeat things (I’m not very good with the Swiss accent!). Anita told us all about the ants on the way, and Dave talked to Martin a lot about conservation and the concept of wilderness, which was really interesting. It’s great when you get to chat to someone about those things who really knows what they’re talking about!

Ruedi also told me and Dave a story about the nutcracker. The little black and white bird is the emblem of the National Park, but it hasn’t always been so beloved! In the early 1960s, some people in Switzerland (outside the National Park) hunted the nutcrackers because they saw that they ate the nuts of the pine trees and they wanted to protect the forest. In the late 1960s, it was realised that the birds don’t just eat the seeds, they also help to plant them! They stash seeds for the winter but only use 80-90% of their stash, leaving the rest to germinate. So the nutcracker is now a reminder that we don’t always know what we’re doing when we meddle with nature. In the National Park, there have been 100 years without human interference for this reason (oh, except the reintroduction of the bearded vulture, which is doing well here now).

At lunchtime we left the forest and rested under the sun by an old Alp. We watched a few deer on the hill and Ruedi made us teas and coffees to go with our sarnies.

Out of the forest for lunch

After lunch, we headed back into the forest to keep on looking. On one section, we all gathered together to mark a suitable nest and Ruedi realised Dave was missing! I called him for a while, then we heard Ruedi’s phone ringing. Directions were given and we met up again at the next trail. “Sorry guys!”

On the last section of trail, we saw a lot of comically shaped spruce trees. Ruedi told us these had been browsed by deer, but they were doing just fine. Once they manage to get out of reach, they shoot upwards and grow up to be healthy.

Ruedi with a browsed spruce that has made its escape!

After walking around in a lot of lovely forests, we eventually had about 20 suitable nests identified. Almost all the nests were spotted by Martin, so I’m not sure Dave and I helped much, but it was an interesting day out and a nice walk with plenty of food for thought.

When we got back to Zernez, we were chatting to Ruedi about the next few days. He was telling us about a really interesting project on Friday when they’re going to flood the valley using the dam, in the hope of recreating natural floods in the future. So now of course we want to stay until Friday, but we really should leave on Thursday!

We also discussed a walk we intend to do tomorrow, to a cirque at 2,900 m. Ruedi said it’s a long day out (about 9 hours) with 1500 m of up, and 1500m back down. “Have you ever done that before?”… Erm, no… “Then I think it’s better for you if I drive you in the car to the tree line.” After a short debate we decided to take his advice and his kind offer. Thanks Ruedi! Looking forward to tomorrow.

– Anna

Poo Picking (for science!)

June 27, 2015Leave a comment

At 7:30am we were outside the admin castle, as promised. Just after 8am we set off with Lukas and Nikoline to head into the park and help with some research. Lukas is getting back into biology after spending several years building up a business teaching people how to kayak and trail run. Nikoline is working here permanently helping all the researchers.

As we drove down the road, we learned that we were going to be collecting poo today. It will be analysed for stress hormones for a research project into food availability and stress.

We parked up and met Leah, a research student. The five of us set off up the trail to the alp hut, where we’d been to fix the solar panel a few days before. Lukas was keen to get up there, so we set off at quite a pace and arrived in good time.

Now we were to walk back and forth up the slope, looking for fresh scats. When we found a nice fresh wet one, we were to put it in a ziplock bag and label it. Once we had 15 bags of poo, we were done. It took quite a while to find 15 fresh ones, walking back and forth and up and down in the hot sunshine. But we made it! And I even came across a common viper that Dave managed to snap mid-escape.

Dave and Nikoline looking for poo

Found some! Bag it up.

Glimpse of the common viper

Then we sat outside the alp hut for lunch and watched some female Ibex and a herd of deer on the faraway slopes.

Lunch at the alp

After lunch, we hiked back up to the camera and solar panel on the other side of the river to fix the cable to the ground with pegs. Why we didn’t just do this when we were up there the other day, I’m not sure. But it was nice in the end because we got to walk back on the other side of the river, where we hadn’t been before – and in the shade of the trees!

Alpine flowers

Steep descent

Off the trail

I was feeling pretty tired on the way back, my legs complaining about cycling up here then hiking for four days straight. But we were back to the car reasonably early and headed back to the office.

After another visit to the shop to get dinner things, we returned to the campsite for showers. Ruedi met us there at 5pm whilst his children were doing activities in town. We organised the next few days here and chatted about the park before he had to head off.

By the time we’d made dinner, eaten and Dave had chatted to his family, it was bedtime. I am so tired! Glad we’ve got a day off tomorrow, I think I need it.

– Anna

Hike to Cluozza

June 27, 2015June 27, 20154 Comments

Today we were heading to the mountain hut. Ruedi had informed us that it was about a 2.5 hour hike to the hut but we should spend longer on it to spot some wildlife. We needed to sort a few things out in the morning before we left, so we took it easy and got all our stuff together before heading to the Co-op. We stocked up on hiking food, paused on the edge of town for a snack, then headed onto the trail.

Meadows on the outskirts of town

Across the meadows then straight away we were climbing, but thankfully we were in the forest and it was cooler in the shade. It was a beautiful trail up the side of the mountain and we followed the path towards a recommended viewpoint.

Overlooking the National Park

Zernez from the viewpoint

When we arrived at the viewpoint, we could see Zernez below us and the opposing mountains behind. We could also hear some loud music coming from the valley and spotted some festival tents with the binoculars. After lunch, we carried on up until we went around the side of the mountain for a view of the next valley. From there, we couldn’t hear the music or the road any more, just the breeze and the birds.

Through open forests

Glimpse of the mountains

We got up to an area where the trees were growing close to the ground, curving up in a not very tree-like way at all. We later learned that this type of pine grows like that in snowy or avalanche-prone areas, so that it can bounce back after the snow is gone. Clever!

Avalanche-proof pines

After being overtaken by a hill-runner (rather him than me!), we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the steep-sided valley. The gravelly river in the bottom full of melt water from the snow-topped mountains behind. We couldn’t see any animals from there but spotted the hut where we would be spending the night and the trail up the other side of the valley where we would be hiking tomorrow.

Overlooking the valley (tomorrow we go up the mountain on the left, through the grassy area on top)

Dead tree gives life to mushrooms

We had a lot of downhill to do now and tried not to hurt our knees on the steep descent. We realised the other day that we’re outside the EU now and don’t have any health insurance! But I’m sure we could ride to Germany on a twisted ankle…

Once we got to the bottom, we crossed the river and headed back up a few switchbacks on the other side to reach the hut. When Ruedi said we would be staying at a mountain hut, I imagined a shack with some space for lying down, and some composting toilets. But no, this was a luxury mountain hut, a beautiful old wooden building with a modern kitchen where the chef was preparing dinner. And the toilets were flushing toilets! Where does it all go?

Hut Cluozza

Viewing area outside the hut

So we checked in and were showed to our huge dorm, which we only had to share with one other person tonight. Then we sat out on a picnic bench and made second lunch whilst scouring the mountain meadows for deer. There was still some time before dinner and we found a quiet area along the path to sit and I did some yoga whilst Dave caught up on some blogging. Then it was 6.30pm and we all gathered in the dining room to eat. We were sat at a big wooden table with a white-haired mountaineer, and two couples out hiking. They were Swiss except one of the blokes who was Argentinian, so we spoke mostly English together and shared stories of the day. The food was great, especially considering it arrives by helicopter – or on someone’s back! And we treated ourselves to a beer.

In the evening, we gathered outside overlooking the mountains and spotted red deer and chamoix through binoculars and a telescope. The chamoix were right on the top of the mountain, on a patch of snow in the late evening sunlight, jumping around and playing.

Just before bed, I got chatting to a German girl who works in the hut and she told us her experience of doing seasonal work in the Alps. At the moment, she does three weeks on, one week off at the hut, but it’s hard work! You have to get up at 6am and you don’t get to bed until after 9pm. Oh, and your commute is a 2.5 hour hike!

We were all in need of some sleep by then and headed to bed, the alarm set for 4:55am.

– Anna

Introduction to the Swiss National Park

June 27, 2015August 4, 2015Leave a comment

As instructed, we arrived at the Swiss National Park’s impressive offices at 8.30 this morning. Ruedi showed us into his office and told us about his plans for us over the next few days. He said that today we should visit the National Park Information Centre for a few hours, then in the afternoon we could help to check up on a piece of monitoring equipment in the south of the park. He also told us that the National Park will cover the cost for us to spend a night at Chamanna Cluozza, which is a log cabin within the park. This means that we will be able to do a two day trip inside the park tomorrow and Thursday. Thanks Ruedi! Then he gave us his own binoculars and telescope to use for the week. Er, thanks again Ruedi!

The admin building used to be a castle!

After this we met some of the team. There are several interns working for the Park at the moment. Ruedi told us he gets about 100 speculative CVs per year from people wanting to be part of the team. He can only take 5 each year, so he gets the pick of the bunch!

We also met Tim, who has just finished his PhD and is now doing his civilian service working for the park. He is a geographical information systems expert which means he can use mapping software to do amazing things with data collected in the park. He is currently working on a project that will use photos taken over the last 100 years to build up an accurate picture of how the landscape has changed since the park was created. This involves working out exactly where the camera was located for each one of the photos by using the skylines in the pictures. Then the pixels in the photos will be superimposed in the correct places on a map of the park. So much work, but eventually you will be able to press play and watch the landscape of the park develop ACCURATELY from 1914 to 2015. Awesome!

We went across the road to the Information Centre, which is a modern concrete building and provides a big contrast to the offices! We got info-handsets that teach visitors about the exhibits in several languages. The first room was great, they call it a “shower of nature”. Three massive screens showing you videos of wildlife in the park through the seasons. It was beautiful and a great way to get in the mood for learning about nature!

The rest of the exhibits were in three rooms, concentrating on the geology, animal life and human activity in the park. We learned about marmots and deer, ibex and chamois. We found out about the reintroduction of bearded vultures, which began in 1991 and has been a great success since the first pair bred in the wild here in 2007. We learned that the park has three goals: to protect nature, to research natural processes and to inform people. There was so much information available that we left after 2 hours feeling quite overwhelmed, and I’m not going to try to explain too much here! Safe to say that goal three is working!

One important thing to know is that there is really very little human intervention in the park. People are welcome to walk the marked trails but that’s about it! No cycling, no dogs, no leaving the trail, no fires. It sounds draconian, but the results speak for themselves. Some of the species in the park are very tolerant to people. The marmots will remain within a few metres, and even the red deer will sometimes allow people to get quite close. They know that people who stay on the trails don’t pose a threat. So the strict rules result in amazing opportunities to see shy animals up close.

We went back to the office and met Cristoph, who is an electronics and technical expert. Tim, Anna and I were going to be helping Cristoph in the park. There is an infrared camera recording the heat signature of the ground on one side of a valley. The idea is to compare the heat signature with the different flora present, and see if there are any correlations. The camera batteries are solar powered, and they have run down, so our job was to see if we could work out why, and fix it.

We set off in the car and after about 15 minutes we pulled into a carpark outside the boundary of the park. We began walking up a beautiful river valley, past a disused alp. Alps are areas of grassland in the mountains where cows are kept. There is usually a building in the area where milk, butter and cheese are produced. The mountain range we call the Alps is named for all the alps it contains. We occassionally stopped to look for red deer that were sometimes to be seen enjoying the grass high up the valley above the trees.

Into the park

The old alp

It started to rain and got a little cold, but before long we reached one of the ranger huts, which is near the camera station. Tim opened the door and we shook ourselves down and went in to sit down for lunch and coffee. Luxury!

The rain soon stopped and we went outside to check the hills for wildlife. We were very lucky! We saw red deer, chamois and ibex scattered in small groups around the valley. Tim joked that we were only missing the bearded vulture, and afew minutes later one glided past, all the way to a curve in the valley where it circled a couple of times and disappeared behind a ridge. Such a cool experience! A group of schoolkids arrived with their teacher and a guide. They were a bit too cool for school at first but once they saw the animals through the telescope they got really enthusiastic, which was nice too see!

Watching the deer

Kids unimpressed by man with antlers

After lunch we crossed the river and climbed the steep hillside to cheek out the camera. Cristoph decided that everything was probably working fine, but that the solar panel wasn’t getting enough sun.

The crossing

Cristoph checking the camera system

We decided to move the panel into a clearing a little further from the camera. This meant carrying the panel up the hill. Luckily Tim had brought a suitable carrying frame, and sure feet, and before long we were fixing the panel back into the hillside in clearing in the trees. That should keep the camera going!

I think I helped

Placing the panel

Once we’d secured everything we tested that the camera was working by using Anna’s hand. Then we tested it properly by getting thermal images of the hillside.

First test (see screen)

Part of the Team!

After that it was back to the ranger hut for another coffee. We tidied up for the Rangers (a matter of honour according to Cristoph), and headed back down the valley to the car. A brilliant introduction to the park and some of the great people who work here!

– Dave

Boumort hunting reserve

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015Leave a comment

Yesterday we were just packing up and sorting stuff out, getting ready to leave today. We said goodbye to Juan-Anton in the afternoon and in the evening we went to visit Silvia and Rafael. They invited us in again and we had another tasty dinner and talked about Catalonia, its people and wildlife. Everyone here has been so warm and welcoming! It feels like such a nice place to live.

This morning we put our bags in the back of the taxi and freewheeled the 12 km to the main road, soaking in the gorgeous scenery and the morning sunshine. Then we met the taxi again in a nearby village and got taken 25 km uphill to another small village in the mountains. We locked up our bikes and waited with our huge pile of bags!

Heading down to Alinya

Enjoying the morning sunshine

We had been invited to Boumort by Jordi, who arrived at 10am as promised, and we piled into his car. We didn’t know what the plan was for the day but were ready to go with the flow. And it turned out to be a good one!

Me with Jordi Palau, overlooking Boumort

Jordi drove us off the tarmac road onto the tracks in the reserve, telling us about the place on the way. Boumort is one of 3 areas that Jordi and the rest of the team manage as hunting reserves. Hunting is the main activity here but they are also starting to generate an income from ecotourism. There are hides at the vulture feeding station and you can pay to spend a half day there watching the birds and taking pictures.

The reserves were set up in the 1980s and one of the first projects was to reintroduce red deer. (I guess that was rewilding before anyone started talking about it like that!) The only species that can be hunted on the reserves are red deer and wild boar. They are also reintroducing black vulture here. The project at Alinya is the same one as at Boumort, so the 45 birds live between the two places.

Jordi told us our first stop for the day would be the vulture hide! There were two other visitors that day too, so the four of us went inside with Jordi and watched the frenzy. We saw hundreds of griffons, at least six black vultures, a handful of Egyptian vultures and at least three bearded vultures!

Waiting for breakfast

Incoming

Tucking into some brains

Fighting over the food

Black vulture among griffons

A young bearded vulture strutting around at the back

Three of the four species here (Egyptian vulture flying)

After the frenzy, we set off again in the car with Jordi and he told us about the black vulture reintroduction project. They have a holding cage at Boumort for the young birds and a hacking station on a cliff top. Hacking is when you take young chicks from captivity and put them somewhere you want them to call home. Then you feed them until they grow up and fly the nest. They see the place where they fledged as the place where they were born and tend to stay there to reproduce when they are grown up. It’s a good way to supplement the reintroductions.

We stopped for lunch next to one of the office buildings on the reserve, which had a fabulous view over the valley! Nice place to work.

The history of Boumort is similar to Alinya – when people moved away from the area and abandoned the farmlands and forestry areas, nature started to come back. Now the forest is taking over the grassland areas, which is something they are trying to prevent. A mixture of habitat types is ideal for all kinds of species, and in a wild ecosystem, a mosaic of habitats would form naturally through grazing, fire, flood, landslides. But where there are no top predators and where fires are controlled, alternative forms of management are required, so they have reclaimed some of the old pastures.

Over the past few decades since the wolf was hunted to extinction in the area, a few lone wolves have been seen here, but not for 5 years. And the lone wolves were almost always males. Only one female has been seen in the whole region over the last 20 years. Reintroduction of the wolf is not possible politically but if it comes back naturally, that would be great for the reserve. In the meantime, hunters do the job of the wolves. As well as trophy hunting, there is selection hunting. You can pay a small fee to come and take out the deer that would probably be taken by wolves in a natural ecosystem. They won’t have an impressive set of antlers, but hunters are always looking to hone their skills, and it’s an important function for the reserve.

As we drove around, we were soaking up the scenery. The weather had been gorgeous all morning; sunny with a few fluffy clouds. Now in the warm afternoon we drove along the north side of one of the mountains and enjoyed the lush cool forest.

Jordi had said that he could only spend the morning with us, but it was almost 4pm when he dropped us back by our bikes. Ah, Spanish midday! Then we said our goodbyes and he headed back to the office to carry on working, whilst we got our bikes together to set off.

Managing three reserves must keep Jordi very busy! We feel very privileged that he spent the day showing us around. It was the perfect day trip.

We got back on the bikes and headed back up to the pass. It was only 5 km to the top, then we got to ride downhill the rest of the way! It was happily overcast and we enjoyed the journey.

Going up to the pass

At the top

Going back down to the valley

That evening we got to a campsite in Organya, set up, showered, laundered, cooked, ate and were about to pack up when another touring cyclist arrived. He rode into the middle of the camping pitches, dismounted, and promptly dropped his fully laden bike on the ground. Thud. We gave him a wave and he set up before coming over to say hello.

Joe is from Sheffield doing a tour around Europe. He set off in January (!) and is about to make his way back home. We chatted until it got dark, shared some food and headed to bed.

– Anna

Vultures up close

June 11, 20152 Comments

Today we were to meet Aleix to help him with the vulture food. We met at 10am in the café in Alinya and had a chat over tea and coffee. Aleix asked to see our blog and when he saw that we didn’t have any pictures of the vultures, told us that we should go to the hide today with the camera!

First we took the trailer full of meat scraps to a building that has a huge fridge. The local slaughter house is happy to give the leftovers to Muntanya d’Alinya because otherwise they have to pay to dispose of them. The trailer was full of plastic bags of organs, tubs of bones, fluffy sheep feet and – most gross of all – skinned sheep heads with the eyeballs still in! We had to empty everything into barrels, sorted by type. Aleix and his helper Gerard do this every week. And Aleix says that after doing it for a lot of years, he no longer eats any meat. I can’t blame him, it was pretty gross! But we were glad to finally actually be helping with something.

Unloading the meat

We loaded four barrels into the truck and headed up to the hide, asking Aleix questions on the way. Then we were ushered into the hide whilst Aleix and Gerard unloaded the barrels onto the feeding point before driving away.

Putting out the food in the mist

Inside the hide

It was very misty and we couldn’t even see 100m, let alone the mountains on the other side of the river! But somehow the vultures knew what was going on and came swooping down within minutes. Griffon vulture after griffon vulture came down, legs forward, wings spread, neck stretched out. They flocked and ate and fought over the scraps. The mist cleared occasionally to reveal the mountains opposite and an overcast sky.

Vultures arriving

Joining the melee

We watched them for about an hour, loitering and picking at the bones. One vulture in particular was pretty aggressive. He’s a young male tagged 97N. He kept picking fights with bigger birds and losing!

Coming in to land

97N being a bad-ass

Young birds waiting in the wings

Scuffle (of course involving 97N)

Once most of the griffon vultures got bored of picking at the bones, they flew off and only a few hung around. We saw a fox sneak out of the trees to steal a bone and carry it off. Then a little later we spotted a bearded vulture in the sky! We’d been given strict instructions not to take pictures of it until it is on the ground feeding because the movement of the camera lens poking out of the hide scares them away.

Departure time for this vulture

Sly Mr. Fox

The bearded vulture came in for another fly-over, close enough to see his dangly beard! But he didn’t land. A few little finches and a jay came to visit, then our time was done and Aleix came to collect us.

We drove down, picked up Gerard and headed to Alinya for a coffee. Aleix looked at our pictures and was very nice about them, although I’m sure he sees a lot of professional photos here! We had a lovely chat about Muntanya d’Alinya and Boumort, and about our route plans for the coming weeks. Then we had to say goodbye, but had a nice group photo taken by Gerard first.

I almost forgot this is our last proper day here, I’ll be sad to leave. Everyone is so kind and the place is beautiful. I suspect we’ll be back in Catalonia at some point!

Bye Aleix, you’ve been amazing!

– Anna

Digging day

June 9, 2015Leave a comment

Today we were weeding the aromatic herbs! We set off on the trail to the garden around 9am and the half hour walk too us until 10:15am. We may have been distracted by the beautiful commute and a detour to the spring. There were butterflies everywhere, enjoying the warm stones and the juicy wildflowers.

Today’s commute

At the spring – where Alinya village water comes from

When we finally arrived at work, we thought how lucky we were to have this as our workplace for the day.

At work

Dave working hard

We set to work on the first plot of thyme, digging out the flowers and grasses growing up between the herbs. After about an hour and a half, we stopped for some cake and surveyed our progress. It wasn’t looking good for an afternoon finish! We had done the smallest and least overgrown of the five plots at it was almost midday.

The strategy after lunch was for me to get to work on the lavender and oregano, which didn’t look too overgrown. Dave would get going on the lower plots, which were more weeds than herbs!

By the time I’d got the worst of the weeds out of the top three plots and Dave had cleared a good chunk of one of the lower ones, we were in need of a break and some more water. We headed back down to the spring to fill up the bottles and cool off, then planned to go back to work. But the weather had other ideas!

We walked back to the plots as a few drops of rain were starting to come down. By the time we got back it was properly raining and we sheltered under the pine tree to have some food and wait out the weather. Then a cold wind blew in from the south, where a dark cloud was looming. A rumble of thunder came to us on the wind and we packed up to head down.

Stormy walk home

Just a few minutes later and it was raining heavily – or is that hail?! Huge hailstones were bouncing down, smacking off our raincoats and drenching our legs. It wasn’t too cold though and we quite enjoyed our walk back. I even went barefoot for a bit once we were back on the road. It feels great to walk barefoot in the rain, I can recommend it!

Across scree slopes

Back towards the village

We got back home soaked through and had to have our cold bucket showers in the torrent (much less pleasant than it usually is on a hot, sunny afternoon!). Then we dried off and made hot chocolate and felt a lot better. Time for a yoga class before dinner to loosen up those ham strings.

The chilly water we shower in

All afternoon the rain and thunder carried on and even when it stopped in the evening, it was still humid and the sky was moody. Our laundry is still drenched even though we hung it inside. So different from a few days ago!

Tomorrow I’m not looking forward to wearing my wet clothes, but we are looking forward to spending the day with Aleix talking about vultures!

– Anna

Hiking with a guide

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015Leave a comment

We breakfasted with Carles and enjoyed more nice chats over museli. Then we drove down to the visitor centre in Alinya at 10am to meet the hikers he would be guiding. They were three local people from La Seu, down in the valley. We all introduced ourselves then Carles gave us the plan for the day – we would drive to a village further up the mountain then walk up past some huge rock formations to a ridge. From there we could enjoy the great views before heading back down a different route to make a loop back to the village. We would be going from about 1200m to around 1750m.

So off we went and parked the cars at the hillside village, the stone buildings overlooking the valley below. We walked past more potato caves and learned about the traditional farming methods here. The people would have kept the potatoes in the caves until the price was good enough to make the long journey down to the valley by mule to sell the potatoes at the market. As well as potatoes, they would have grown cereal crops here in the terraced fields on the hills and kept sheep and goats.

Carles showing us a fallen bird’s nest

We walked between two huge rocks on our way up the valley. The mountains here were formed by tectonic movements and have since been eroded by wind and water. The harder rock has resisted erosion for longer and so you can see huge sections of mountain sticking up out of the ground in places, forming ridges, peaks and ledges. The trees like to grow along the cracks, highlighting the layers in the rock, so you can see that the lines sometimes run horizontal, sometimes vertical and all other variations in between.

We walked passed different types of vegetation. At the beginning of the walk we were in a Mediterranean habitat with shrubs and oak trees. Then we went up into the Scots pine and juniper. Above us, starting around 1800m, were black pines that grew up to the tree line.

We walked through forest and then wildflower meadows to the ridge that was our summit for the day. The rocky ridge was exposed to the wind and, although calm today, all of the plants were growing close to the ground to protect themselves.

Up to the ridge

We stopped for lunch with fabulous views of the landscape. From there, the rock formations, human impact and vegetation patterns we had learned about were all on display.

Carles at the summit

Lunchtime

After lunch, we walked back along the ridge and spotted a type of mountain goat called an isard! They’re very shy and it scampered up a crazy ledge to escape from us. Then we had to make our way down through some forest. It was an old trail that hadn’t been maintained and we scraped our way past Scots pine and spiky juniper bushes to make it out to the wildflower meadows once again.

Which summit is which?

An orchid perhaps…

When we were about half way down, the three local hikers decided to take a short cut to the car since they were in a hurry to get back to town – Adieu! Then, with time on our hands, Carles decided to take us on a little detour.

There was a storm brewing in the north and a cool wind was blowing, sweet relief from the afternoon sun. We chatted about the valley, its people and its landscape and Carles told us some of what he’d learned from the people who had come on the walk. One of the women had grown up nearby and said that she had come to Alinya for mass with her parents. The village of Alinya used to have a rectory and a school. The rectory is now used as a visitor centre but the school is long run down. The lady said that the last rector here was a woman who had moved to Alinya to be away from it all but still in a community. She held mass and helped the people in the community until she was too old to stay on the mountain and moved to the valley before passing away in her 90s.

When we reached Alinya again, it was early evening and we looked at the rectory with fresh eyes. Then took a silly picture!

Outside the rectory

The old school

Carles was reluctant to head back home to his town near Barcelona so we all went for teas and coffees in Alinya. We spent hours talking about sustainable living, Transition Towns, cycle touring, inspiring adventurers, and our plans for the future. Carles and his girlfriend Anna had a lot of inspiring ideas! They grow their own food, she makes her own soap and they are part of a local co-orperative. Carles has plans to set up a community bike shop where you can learn to ride, rent bikes and go to the workshop to fix your bike. It felt so good to share stories and ideas with someone with similar values.

At 7pm we were hungry and Carles had to start his drive home so we parted ways. He’s a great guy, I hope we will keep in touch!

Dave and I headed home on the walking trail, which is much shorter and steeper than the road. We collected a few elderflower heads and soaked them overnight to make cordial. We had fajitas for dinner (sort of – the supermarkets here don’t have much in the way of foreign food, so there were a few substitutes to be made!), and went to bed.

I’m hoping we get a day off tomorrow – there’s so much to catch up on! Whoever would have thought you could be so busy without having a job!

– Anna

for people. for nature.

Category: Nature

Introducing Bison in the Dutch Dunes

Macun lakes

Anthill hunting

Poo Picking (for science!)

Hike to Cluozza

Introduction to the Swiss National Park

Boumort hunting reserve

Vultures up close

Digging day

Hiking with a guide