Hi everyone. I love writing the blog, I am sure that regular readers are aware that it is a bit stop start, depending one what else is going on.
However, this site was not set up merely as a blog. The idea of this site was to simplify wildlife travel. There are huge numbers of more specific sites, and plenty of less specific sites, but I had not found one dedicated to all wild travel.
I am keen to encourage wild travel, as the money that you spend gives a reason for the wildlife to be conserved. Living alongside wildlife can cause problems, ranging from irritating to costly to deadly.
We went live with our first 12 or so lodges a few months ago, and we are about to add another 10-15 destinations. All the destinations so far happen to exist in africa, and indeed the majority of people going on a wild holiday are going on safari. However, when the epidemic starts to die down, I should be adding the first european bear hide on the site, though I hope the first of many.
I am also about to start a new section of the website “in the shadow of man-kind”. It is fantastic to be able to go off on a wild holiday to a safari or similar, however in many parts of the world, the wildlife lives among the human population. For instance wolves and bears in Europe may well be found within national parks but they roam far beyond the borders. This section will be devoted to this wildlife. There are many species that cannot be conserved in isolation.
With adjustments, it is possible to live happily alongside all sorts of animals, including livestock farmers alongside predators. However, these adjustments often cost money, and this is where we come in.
People will be able to list wildlife regularly encountered around them, and offer a service. A south african farmer might have cheetah on his land, so he might offer to take guests out on his land to see the cheetahs for a fee. The idea, is that the cheetah are now providing a monetary advantage to the farmer, so there is a financial incentive for the farmer to conserve the cheetah.
The service could be anything from a walk/drive tour to see the animals, a place to stay the night (hide to watch from) or a place to camp. A restaurant which regularly sees bush babies could list themselves, or indeed a nature guide could list their services. I hope that as with the rest of the website this grows big, but I will need your support to do so.
Tim Welby
p.s. I hope everyone likes the new website Favicon. Though small this little icon (it should appear on the tab) is the see animals now picture from the right hand margin
