Some of the old-timers on birding-aus will remember the occasional
contributions from Paul Oliver. Paul grew up in the UK and went touring in
Africa in his 20s. As often happens in Africa, something bit him and he stayed
to settle in Arusha Tanzania. He was a pioneer in the modern safari industry
and developed from scratch one of the best camps in Tanzania - Oliver’s Camp in
Tarangire National Park. He ran birding safaris for people from all over the
world and had a great reputation as a naturalist and teacher to many native
Tanzanians. He met his partner Lala - an Australian - and has spent many years
since “with one foot in Tanzanian and the other in Australia”. His Australia
home was in Far North Qld (Kuranda I think).
I met Paul when my wife and I went to Arusha to live in March 2020 and he
offered us a house to rent. We found ourselves in a blissfully peaceful oasis
of native trees, full of birds. The house was quirky (like the owner) and had
lots of beer and wine bottles embedded in the walls and bits of old landrovers
scattered around as structural features. Paul arrived prior to a safari and we
quickly became mates as he was very generous with his local birding knowledge
and vast number of stories of the Tanzanian bush. He amazingly let me look
after his excellent library of African natural history books.
Unfortunately he also arrived with a gut ache which, after many tests in three
countries, turned out to be cancer. He returned to live in the UK for
treatment and enjoyed a year or so looking for the birds and wild places of his
youth. Sadly Paul passed away yesterday. He was just 65.
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