Amphibians in Mariapfarr As the snow began to melt and the signs of spring started to emerge, so did the herps. On one of my walks I found myself around the lake of the Der Outdoorparc Lungau. It was the breeding season of the common toad, Bufo bufo. Thousands (or so it seemed to excited me) of them had gathered to call and find mates. Heaven for a herpetologist and....
As a passionate and amateur herpetologist I was very keen to start exploring of Austria to see the various snakes, lizards and amphibians the country has to offer. But with the largest dump of snow the Lungau had had in many years… it meant I had a long time to wait and a lot of time to kill. So what to do in the snow laden mountains of the Alps? Learn to ski....
My time here in Austria started officially in February but first I would need to get there. Volunteers before me moved with a suitcase and backpack; taking only the essentials and necessities. With a year ahead of me, a want to visit friends old and new along the way and having always wanted do a long road trip, I decided to move to Austria by car. A casual 1,014....
Within my first few weeks at the European Wilderness Society we displayed some of the artwork produced during last year’s WILDArt project in Synevyr Wilderness in Ukraine. Together with the team we had a short time to frame and hang up what felt like hundreds of prints, pictures and paintings. But with the whole team pitching in, from framers to carriers....
Soon after the WILDArt exhibition we rolled straight into the Academy Days; 3 days of talking and listening to experts in the respective fields. From honoured guests John Hausdoerffer the founding Dean of the School of Environmental & Sustainability and Gary Oye, the former chief of the US National Park Service and US Forestry Service. We also heard from rangers....
Sunday was sadly the last day of our trip, but we made a good use of it. In the morning we went rafting on the Soca river which was great fun despite the very cold water (apparently it had 11°C). Arguably one of the best moments of the entire trip was when Nick fell out of the raft, but his leg was stuck, so he was just kind of hanging out of the raft drowning. It....
And it really was throwing myself straight in. Thursday morning I spent in the office and then in the afternoon, the team took the car and drove to the village of Muhr, where we had been invited to the grand opening of a new national park exhibition. It was all about the River Mur – Austria’s second largest river, which has its origin here in the Lungau, but also....
Hello world. We just published a video about our wild adventures in Ukraine this summer, which I wrote about briefly here. But a picture speaks a thousand words, and a video must speak exponentially more, so here I’m going to leave a video produced by two young filmmakers about our WILDArt trip. Nature, art, friendship, culture… it was a bang of a week and this....
This week was a special one, I experienced the first snow of the year! We’ve had snowfall on the mountains a few times, but this time I got to feel the snow, and make a celebratory snowball and snow angel. Winter is coming! That morning Nick and I were heading to Salzburg for an Erasmus workshop, so that meant… driving over the mountains! My face was pressed against....
Popping in to mark the passing of seasons Hello world. I’m dropping by to post a little update on volunteering. Life is busy in the office, we’re in the throes of selecting our next volunteer (super exciting), and I’m working on publications, the Wilderness Academy and a few follow up details from Ukraine. For me, busy is good! I like to keep myself occupied, and I....