Yes it’s true, with just under a week to go before the start of the BWBA (Big World Birding Adventure) life is rather hectic around here. Jane’s still putting the finishing touches to the itinerary (and the airlines still keep changing their schedules!), we are doing near daily trips to the outdoor shops – it’s amazing how many essential items of everyday clothing and equipment you didn’t know you needed and the pressure to nail the birding sites, particularly in Argentina and Chile, where we are completely acting on our own initiative, is beginning to tell!

We’ve spent the last few evenings using a prototype internet bird listing app., which Matthew is developing, to try to establish exactly what my world bird list currently is, before attempting to add a shed load more to it. It’s surprising to a taxonomy ‘newbie’ like me just how many different names, both common and scientific, a single bird can have! Anyway, we’re getting there and thanks Matt for a cracking piece of kit. It should make the ritual of the ‘daily log &  list’ slightly easier than our last mini world trip, where Jane and Bob seemed to spend longer and longer trying to make our daily sightings tally with the trip list!

On another front, I’ve finally taken the plunge and retired my old Lumix compact camera, which I used for ‘digi-scoping’, and bought a new Sony Cyber Shot – early results appear promising but it’s a complicated bit of kit to master! With this new addition and the necessary supplementaries it means I’ve just got room for a spare shirt and a pair  of undies in my baggage allowance!

Just in case you thought this trip was all about birds and my vain attempts to photograph them, you’d be wrong – and to prove it I thought I’d include a couple of shots of Macchu Picchu, taken on our last trip, to give you a flavour of the touristy things we’ll be doing along the way.

A view of Winay Wayna ( the King’s summer residence, if I remember my MP history correctly) taken on the two day trail.

Joseph ( the one that’s getting married to Gabi this time) and our guide, Juan, admiring the view from the Sun Gate.

The ‘Swiss family Williams’ in front of Huayna Picchu.

…and finally, for the birders amongst you, a pair of magnificent Torrent Duck on the river Urubamba.

My last blog, prior to the ‘grande departure’, will be on Friday, depending how the packing goes. Stay tuned for the blogging adventure of a life time…well a few interesting holiday snaps and some ‘potted prose’ from yours truly anyway!