Brett and Karen's 2015 End of Year Letter


Happy Summer Solstice Celebrations from Brett and Karen!

A slightly different salutation this year, but those who know us will understand ...

Last year's report talked about intended trips to Tasmania and Namibia, and these went ahead and were highly successful. Our normal activities again kept us busy as well.

Kayaking in Tasmania
In early February Karen and I loaded our double sea-kayak onto the roof of our X-Trail and drove to Melbourne to catch the Spirit of Tasmania. We met up with the rest of the group of Shoalhaven Bushwalkers who we'd be spending the best part of three weeks with - kayaking and walking in the mountains. We paddled at Dover, Southport, Lake St.Clair, Lake Burbury, Henty River, Strahan, Lake Rosebury, Pieman River, Arthur River, Bass Strait (not all of it - just a bit near Rocky Cape) and Port Sorell. Walks included Cockle Creek to South Cape Bay, Hartz Peak, the Tarn Shelf in Mt Field NP, Mt Donaldson and the Nut at Stanley. A great trip!

(Click a thumbnail below to view a larger image, then click the large image to make it small again)
(and thanks to Mary Furness for her photos of Karen and Brett)

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Namibia, Botswana, Angola and South Africa
In May Karen and I spent a month in Africa - three weeks on a privately organised (thanks Richard!) 4WD tour of Namibia which included a few days in Botswana and a slightly illegal visit to Angola - and five days in South Africa doing a walk in the Drakensburg Mountains.

Although most of the 8 people doing the Namibian trip were birdwatchers, our time was split between birds and animals and we even had time for plenty of walks. We eventually saw about 200 species of birds and almost 50 mammal species - from the biggies like lion, elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros (white and black), giraffe and water buffalo, to springbok, gemsbok, impala, waterbuck, and we even had sightings of honey-badger and black jackal.

Our accommodation varied from luxury cabins and motel rooms, to rooftop tents on our Landcruiser 4WDs, and we mostly dined out at restaurants. We cooked for ourselves on a couple of nights, and had meals cooked for us during a spectacular tag-along tour through Damaraland. A superb trip!

The last three photos below are from our walk in the Drakensburgs. The chain ladders were interesting! We did a 3 day guided walk, staying at upmarket lodges each night. The plateau we climbed was over 3000 metres - to the top of Tugela Falls, the second highest waterfall in the world, which drops into a feature called the Amphitheatre. Unfortunately there was hardly any water flowing over the falls, but the scenery was still awesome!

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Bushwalking and Rogaining
Karen is in her 4th and last year as President of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers, and has now led over 200 walks for the club. Walk highlights this year included a week on Moreton Island (where we walked, snorkelled, kayaked and birded) followed by a few days in the Scenic Rim (mountains SW of Brisbane), 4 days down the coast at Mimosa Rocks, the previously mentioned kayaking trip to Tasmania and 9 days of walking in the Victorian Alps, as well as the usual Wednesday walk each week.

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Sport
Apart from a couple of weeks when my golf handicap blew out to 10, I have remained on a single figure handicap since my 60th birthday a couple of years ago - despite playing less and less as Karen has us gallivanting all around the country and overseas. My handicap has to start going up sooner or later! While I am golfing Karen does a weekly mountain bike ride with the local Bicycle Users Group, and she manages at least one other ride a week, usually on the weekend. Sometimes I go too, but not as often as I should. Karen still swims a couple of times a week too - in the sea pool during Summer when it is open (and has water in it) and at the indoor pool at the local Leisure Centre the other six months of the year.

Photography
I am still the Vice-President and Webmaster of the Bay and Basin Camera Club, and am still taking "snaps" on the various activities that I do rather than producing works of "art". Below are a few photos taken this year that I consider worth sharing ...

(Click a thumbnail below to view a larger image, then click the large image to make it small again)

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Birds
Karen and I still have not reached the magic 600 species of Australian birds seen yet, but we inched closer with the unexpected sighting of a Mangrove Honeyeater on the south end of Moreton Island during our bushwalker trip there early in the year. On a trip to Lake Cargelligo in October we sighted a Black Honeyeater which was not exactly a new bird for us, but our previous sighting was a dead bird we picked up on the side of the road. Karen had a "lifer" with a Black-eared Cuckoo that I had seen before, and we scored a Painted Honeyeater at Cocoparra NP near Griffith after a detour on our way home. However, because of "lumps" and "splits" on the official list (previously listed species being combined into one species or one species being split in two or more species) our life list hardly went up at all, seemingly stalled on 593.

Birdlife Shoalhaven
Two years ago Karen and I established a branch of BirdLife Australia in our local area, last year we did a lot of work getting it up and running, and this year we sat back hoping some highly motivated conservationists would step up and help us out. We have been partially successful, with our new conservation officer doing a fantastic job! Karen is still the Treasurer of BirdLife Shoalhaven and I am still the Secretary, but apart from producing a quarterly newsletter and updating our website, Facebook and Twitter pages regularly, there is not too much for us to do.

Plans for 2016
More of the same - with one major overseas trip planned (France), plus a couple of weeks of looking after an outback property for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

We hope everyone has a great Summer Solstice, and that 2016 is fantastic too ...

Cheers,
Brett and Karen Davis

P.S. As usual, our previous yearly letters can be viewed by clicking the following links - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.