... I did not forget about one other great trip last year! I had the chance to join my croatian friend Boris (a huge thanks btw ;-) ) on his field work for the project on mapping the croatian herpetofauna. For one week we were looking quite intensly (well, he a bit more, i had a little more nap-breaks in between, once i fell asleep during the process of getting out of the car..), at least 8 hrs per day, in the field for reptiles and amphibians. As it proofed once again, going with him in the field usually includes some nice surprises regarding the herpetofauna. Last year.. damn, two years ago! ... it was dozends of snakes on Olib, and now again, a more or less new specimen-record for me. This time it was the nose-horned viper, of which we found approx. 50 indivuduals in one week! (..could anyone maybe tell me, if i used the right tenses in the last few sentences?)

 

Lika (the region of croatia we have visited) is really amazing, and very much in contrast to what one usually has in mind about croatia. It's a hilly to mountainous area with some flatlands in between, and, unlike the seaside, completely green.

So if you like to do some easy hiking and relaxing far away from any touristic stuff, Lika seems like a great place for that. Uh, and it's also worth looking for mushrooms there.

Unfortunately I didn't take much landscape shots, so I can more or less only present some in-situ pics of vipers and other critters... like usual...

 

 

Did I already mention that all pics were shot in-situ? Even the trees and flowers!

 

 

 

 Aaaand, at last, the obligatory music tip, this time more random: Nils Frahm, ...uh, wrong link, that was Warpaint..., but here's Nils now, then Orenda Fink, Veruca Salt (damn, that reminds me, that school has been a loongtime ago) and the last one cause I recently started watching Buffy (which is completely new to me): Far ..actually a really cool song, if you like the Tool-Deftoneish-Type of Music.

 

Bokić i laku noć!

Finally some pics from the OhMän desert action..! What shall I say, one of the best field trips ever (like, with some exceptions, always the last one ;-) !

 

Directions are given here:

 

 

An usual day:

 

...getting up at early o'clock, maybe doing some basal hygenic stuff, photographing (yes, those two pics are really in-situ!!) and driving all day (here we already had some 3 or 400 km behind us -- and there was still a small hop left to Muscat ^^), a very small amount of relaxing every now and then (those cleaning fish are just great after 2 weeks in hiking boots ;-) ), followed by searching again until late night :-)

 

Those were our two personal guides, Clever and Smart!

 

 

And now for the truckload of pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...tbc

 

Well well, on we go! Close to the sea and mountain ranges, one wouldn't believe it, there's a real possibility for floods (like this unbelievable footage shows [the drivers a bit later in the video very likely ignored those signs]; that happened during cat 5 Hurricane Gonu), even if there isn't anything but desert near and far. Uh, and if you get the possibility to sit somewhere in the desert and watch the sunset, the sountrack of you choice is provided by the absolute amazing Anouar Brahem Trio. I likely mentioned it about 3 times the last years, minimum, but it's really that great, you just need to take the time and a quiet place. So.. let's start with a sunset and some sunspots -- and no, that part of the sensor was quite clean ;-)

 

 

On the bottom right: Fast and highly unexpected. During clicking the (at that moment alive) gecko, suddenly, out of nowhere, the snake darted towards it, poisoned and constricted it, and then tried to find a place in shadow to have lunch.

 

Those are animals of two very rare species in Oman (and likely the highlights of the trip), the lizard Omanosaura cyanura (funny name for that little fart) and the viper Pseudocerastes persicus:

 

 

Sometimes it's unbelievable how exposed some agamas and geckos are basking during the hottest hours of the day. And they are really sitting or standing exactly like this. Not glued or nailed there, just sitting on the top of the highest stone... or bush if there's no stone.

 

 

A short glimpse into the mountains. Left the hanging gardens underneath the Saiq plateau. I think the vertikal extent is about 1km (!). On the right -- no description required ;-) Bottom left -- the arabic version of the night active cat snake. And canyons are always worth a visit!

 

 

 Also counted as a highlight, even though quite abundant, the Saw-scaled vipers of the genus Echis, left Echis carinatus sochureki (named after an austrian), right Echis khosatzkii. Both of them are as they look, quite venomous.

 

 

 And finally -- a speciality likely to obtain only in As Seeb, Oman: Fresh Shoes! Oh and yes, there are also some other local funny animals. Like Camel spiders, which aren't actually spiders and also not venomous.

 

 

Cheerio!

Uh, and as far as I've been listening to it all evening, another music tipp: Bat for Lashes!