Back to Dakar

I'm in transit now (and catching up on sleep where and when I can,) staying with falconer friends near Glasgow, Scotland. In just a few days, I'll be on a plane back to Africa. It's strange how one can miss a place that is at once appealing and disgusting, but... to me, Africa represents the last strongholds of freedom.

Throughout the "civilized" world, though falconers and falconry can have no impact on wild populations, we're heavily and unnecessarily regulated, both with wild-caught birds and with those we produce in captivity. Not so in Africa. While people respect other living things (in ways, more than we Civilized folk do) they do not feel the need to micromanage every human interaction... and so I will be able to fly passage barbaries, red-necked falcons, African Hawk Eagles, Crowned Hawk-Eagles, and pretty much anything else, as I like.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting. I'm flyingin to Agadir, Morocco. From there, I'll be making my way down to Dakar. Whether I go the overland route or cavitate and pay the airfare, it'll be good to be back on the continent, in warm weather, in a place where I don't have to explain my every movement.

I've got a blog going already at travelblog.org. It's for the travels, and the account name is Falc. This site is for raptors in Africa... both those I fly and those I make available to the rest of the world.

That's all for now... more next time!