Must... buy... ticket... to... Israel... now!
Excellent report, Paul - leaves me sad I couldn't make it. Part one was magnificent and now you manage to top it off with this. Writing, pictures, finds, all are great
Walterinnesia,
T. dhara,
Varanus (even if you just caught a quick glimpse of one),...there's just too much goodness to choose from.
The only thing lacking is of course a photo of the aging boy band fronted by Aviad donning his full Village People garb. Alas, I fear it could not match the vivid description
Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Is it me? Do expect too much?
I recognise that feeling. Especially when revisiting places, you always want to do better than before, but on the other hand you forget about the euphoria of the first time? If this would be my first Israel trip, I would be very, very happy.
I know the feeling as well but your result is excellent and you
do expect too much. I would have been thrilled.
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Compare this with Kristian`s report May 2011.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=774
Okay, so let's compare...
Yes, I had a spectacular first day.
This was followed by a good second and third day and a likewise good morning the fourth day.
The last day and a half, however, I found only geckoes and
Uromastyx!
And in a little more detail...
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:In the Negev Dunes at night we found just one snake Species, normal is three or four.
I had a good night in the Negev dunes but the following night in the Arava dunes I found only
Stenodactylus doriae and tracks of
Sphenops!
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:We had a night with not one Snake on the Road!!! Very uncommon during that time of the year.
I had one excellent night of road cruising but the other two nights brought me a combined total of one snake!
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Normally is that three or four different species of Geckos running on the roads at night, this Trip most of the time it was just one species.
I had one night where I road cruised one gecko species, one with two and one with zero.
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:On the other hand, we flipped tones of Rocks and Trash and found close to nothing, when we found something most of the time it was Chalcides ocellatus.
(For example last year we found two or three Platyceps collaris every Day, this year not one)
Not that I didn't find a bunch of other stuff flipping, but to put this into perspective: I found a grand total of
one snake this way!
In all, I found 40 species in five days as opposed to your 42 in seven days.
So you see, your trip only looks less than stellar by comparison because you choose to compare your worst days with my best. I'd say you did just fine