This is the feedback I gave to Rockjumpers about a tour I went on to PNG in
August 2011. If you are a serious birder, I would not recommend travelling on
their tour with 9 or 10 others. be warned or at least prepared.... I did not
receive an evaluation form before departing from the leaders - and I am happy
to give constructive feedback. It won't be pretty but the leaders will be
perfectly aware of all the major issues: 1. the people on the tour were too
old, unfit and had virtually no birding skills or knowledge2. because of 1
they: a) needed long rests ( I would go and bird alone most days in
the breaks of up to 4 hours!). b) were more interested in eating
than birding. c) could not walk far and struggled to walk up hill.
Some trails were not even attempted. d) took a huge amount of time
to see the birds. This was mainly because there was 1 scope between the 10
people and most had poor eye-sight. e) there were 12-14 pe
ople going down narrow trails looking for shy birds which is a joke. I left
the group to bird independently at every opportunity. f) they made
night birding a complete nightmare and I felt guilty for continuously raising
the issue. I actually had to be left alone in remote locations in PNG jungles
for many hours on end to see difficult species - such as Papuan hawk Owl. I did
not in any way dislike the group or any individuals - but birding wise it
ranged from a joke to a nightmare. These trips are NOT for real birders. They
are for OLD people who are generally happy to spend 1 second looking down a
telescope to tick something. If they glimpse a bird, a shadow etc. most of them
count what they are told they've seen. I had my own Leica 77 for the whole trip
and I was completely independent from the queue at one leader's scope (the
other leader rarely took his because it wasn't working properly). Add to the
above the amount of time we stood around waiting for buses
to show up because the agent didn't have control of what was going on (we
lost many, many hours of birding time), descriptions in the published
itineraries which are at best 'economical with the truth' and good local bird
guides that Rockjumpers booked and paid for who were 'unavailable' e.g. Daniel
Wakra was guiding others when he should have been with us, and I spent most of
the very trip frustrated. The leaders did help try me to bird alone where
possible which I really appreciated and I did see a lot more birds than the
general group - but overall I was bitterly disappointed with the whole
experience. I actually feel really sorry for the leaders in a situation like
this. Cheers
Rob Morris
Rob Morris
Brisbane, Australia
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