sarussarus .anytime.anytime tourstours www.sarusbirdtours.co.uk Bulgaria Hungary India Jamaica Japan Kenya Portugal South Africa Tanzania Trinidad & Tobago Uganda and more ….. Thank you for requesting our brochure, or for picking it up from one of the shows. For many years now, we have been offering a range of Anytime Tours to destinations worldwide. These Anytime Tours have been aimed at couples and small groups, who want to visit some of the world’s top birding locations at a time of their choosing, rather than being restricted to the times of scheduled tours. These tours have been justly popular, as they not only allow for flexibility of dates, but their use of local birding guides has ensured that prices remain competitive with scheduled tours. This success now means that the Anytime Tours have been blessed with a brochure of their own. Since these tours are basically the same from year-to-year, this brochure contains an insert with current prices. This increases the longevity of the brochure, thereby allowing us to cover production costs over several years, rather than repackaging every year. This ensures that there is less waste in brochure production, and also provides cost-savings which mean that we can continue to offer excellent value for money. Prices on the insert are based on a group size of 2 people, travelling at the cheapest time of year. Larger groups will attract discounts on these rates, so please contact us if you are interested and we will provide the latest prices based on your preferred dates. The tours themselves are sample itineraries, and we are more than happy to adjust and alter them to cater for different tour lengths, or to concentrate on specific species, or interests outside of birding. None of this would be possible without our network of local guides, many of whom we consider to be friends, as we have birded with them on many occasions, looking for new and exciting destinations. We hope that you enjoy browsing through the brochure, and please fell free to contact us with any queries. If a country you are interested in is not in the brochure, then we will almost certainly be able to arrange something similar through our extensive network of contacts across the world. Nigel All photographs copyright Nigel Moorhouse, except for Rose-coloured Starling (Ivailo Nikolov), Great Bustard (Balazs Szigeti), Jamaican Tody (Hotel Mockingbird Hill), Shoebill (Brian Finch), Blue Crane (Adrian Binns), Little Bustard (Frank McClintock) and Sarus Crane (Luc Viatour). welcome to anytime tours anytime to welcome Inclusive: Tour prices in this brochure include international (from UK) and internal flights, three meals on full days, and other meals as appropriate for part-days, all ground arrangements, accommodation and the services of tour leader(s). Lunches (and other meals on occasion) may be packed and bottled water is supplied as necessary. Excluded are items of a personal nature, e.g. insurance, laundry, telephone calls and tips. Durations: Dates shown are from arrival in the country to departure inclusive. Please note that the departure day from the UK may be a day earlier, and arrival back a day later than these dates. For clarity, the number of days stated on each tour are only those days where there are birding activities, and exclude transfer-only days often included in other companies’ durations. tour information tour Accommodation: Our tours use a mixture of hotels and lodges, but generally they are of good to excellent quality. The majority of Good accommodation has en suite rooms. Where we state Basic, this refers to clean rooms, mostly with shared facilities, and we only use these types of accommodation where they are in excellent birding locations with nothing else available. Other types of accommodation may be used, and these are stated where appropriate. Prior to each tour, we provide pre-tour information which includes fuller details of accommodation used. Sole Occupation of a room is usually available at a supplement, which will be waived if willing to share and a suitable room-mate can be found. Some properties do not have single rooms, and this will be stated prior to the tour. If a single room is expected, but unavailable for any reason, a pro-rata refund of the supplement will be made. Health, Fitness & Safety: Where stated as Standard, this refers to Tetanus, TB and Polio vaccinations. Special refers to Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever and Antimalarial prophylaxis. Consult your GP 3 months before travel for the latest recommendations. Some tours are fairly easy-going, but some are more strenuous, so please read the itinerary carefully. Participation in any day's events is purely optional, with the obvious exception of where activities take place en-route from one location to another. We take your safety seriously, and do whatever we can to reduce risks. This can mean anything from altering the itinerary, to ensuring we do not drive after dark. The chances of being involved in terrorism are very small com- pared to the risks of accident or robbery, but we do take UK FCO advice, and if we have any doubts while on tour, we consult the tour party to decide the best course of action. Pace: We provide an indication of the pace of the tour alongside each tour. Fast means many sites with intensive birding, through moderate to easy, where the pace is more sedate, and birding more relaxed. If in any doubt about whether a tour is suitable for you, then please feel free to contact our office. Documents: Where Visa is stated, British Passport Holders require a visa, and a passport valid for 6 months from the date of entry. Details of how to obtain visas will be provided on booking. Standard refers to a passport with 6 months validity remaining, Consumer Protection: The air holiday packages in this brochure are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL 6563. Please see our booking conditions for more information. Flights: The prices contained in the brochure include international flights from the UK. If you wish to book your own flights, then please contact us, and we can provide a price without the flight. When booking a holiday with us, either with or without flights, please note the following: Ÿ Dates given are from arrival in the destination country to departure from the destination country. Flight-only days are not given. From the UK, most African holidays will be overnight flights on the way out and on return, so the departure date is one day prior to the brochure start date, arriving back one day later than the brochure end date. We will provide full information when the flights are booked. Ÿ Flight prices are highly volatile at present, and we will inform you of any detrimental changes on booking. We advise you to book as early as possible, as flight prices can increase dramatically closer to the depar- ture date, especially during the northern summer months. Ground Transport is usually by car, minibus or Landcruiser, driven either by the tour leader or a local driver. Other vehicles (e.g. taxis) may be used if they are more appropriate. Trains are occasionally used for overnight journeys, where we will use first-class sleepers if available. Guides: Wherever possible, we try to use local guides, both for their local knowledge, and our philosophy of keeping down prices, and more important- ly, providing an income to local people. The guides below are our principal guides, but we do have several others of similar experience. In addition to our guides, we often have experienced drivers, who assist in making the tour special, and who are also excellent at finding wildlife. Ben Mugambi is one of Kenya’s best birders. He knows the country and its wildlife intimately, and has formed his own company, primarily geared to- wards birdwatching. He has also worked as the Resident Ornithologist and Naturalist, as well as a Guest Relations Officer in a number of the top Lodges, Camps and Hotels. Frank McClintock was born near the Sahara in Africa, and has travelled widely. He settled in southern Portugal over 25 years ago, where he built and now runs a well-appointed guest lodge with his wife Daniela, from which he takes birdwatching excursions to seek out Iberian specialities. He has been a professional guide throughout southern Iberia for over 15 years. Attila Steiner has been a keen naturalist and birdwatcher since his childhood, growing up near the floodplains of the Danube in Hungary. He graduated as a veterinarian and since has been working for WWF on species conservation and wildlife trade issues in the Eastern European region. He has travelled extensively throughout the world. Ivailo Nikolov is co-founder of his own nature tour agency in Bulgaria. He is a zoology graduate, and has carried out numerous ornithological studies and guides & transportation & guides censuses in his native Bulgaria, and now guides tours throughout the country. Local Guides are the mainstay of the ANYTIME tours. Our philosophy is to support locally-based guides wherever possible, in order to ensure local communities benefit from ecotourism, and come to understand the impor- tance of conservation of their local environment. bulgaria Bulgaria Time of Week Tour: We begin in the Western Rodopi Mountains – a famous site for Wallcreeper. On Year: the way we pass through Pazardzhik hills, where we will encounter Bee-eater, Black-headed Bunting, Long-legged Buzzard, Isabelline Wheatear, Calandra Lark, Short-toed Lark, Short- Apr-July toed Eagle and others. Guide: Next, we visit a true hotspot for Europe’s birds of prey - the Ivailo Eastern Rodopi Mountains, where more than 20 raptor species Nikolov can be seen during the breeding season.