Dave
I agree with your points!
PNG was specified as moderate to hard and a high level of fitness was required!
Only the guides and I were fit. I was 80kgs when I left and 71kgs when I got
back! But i probably walked at least 2x what the group did! Most of them were
probably larger on return as while they were having 3 course lunches I was
birding!
Rob Morris
Brisbane, Australia
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 10:01:45 +1100
Subject: Feedback on Rockjumpers PNG birding Tour July-August 2011 - Between a
rock and a hard place so think before you jump!
From:
To:
CC: ;
I think there are two issues to consider on birding trips:
Firstly the number of people and the type of terrain - if it is mainly
rainforest birding then obviously the smaller the group the better - although
this tends to increase the cost of course. Open country birding is fine with a
group of this size - I did NW India with Rockjumper and a group of this size
and there were no problems as it was all desert, wetlands and fairly open
forest.
Secondly is the degree of difficulty - many operators indicate if the
birding/terrain is easy, moderate or hard. I would certainly not go with an
operator who did not specify this - of course not much an operator can do if
they say it is hard and unfit people come I guess
Dave
On 1 January 2012 20:01, robert morris <> wrote:
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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