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The Wild Side of Europe

Gemma and James Shooter, with their two young children Brodie and Isla, and their rescue pup Ty, have embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. They’ve sold their home, and are campervanning around Europe in search of what ‘wild’ really looks like! Clear blue skies welcomed us to the shores […]

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Birding the Algarve

During my professional life as The Urban Birder, I have been very lucky to have been invited around the world to some pretty special places to watch some amazing birds and other wildlife as well as to meet up with some equally amazing conservationists. I have also been fortunate enough […]

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SAINT SPOTTING – Part 2

A painting like this huge panel in the Uffizi gallery in Florence is a feast for saint spotters. It was painted in the first decade of the 15th century, it is 5 m high and Lorenzo Monaco has painted 30 saints attending the Coronation of the Virgin. Most notably there […]

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SAINT SPOTTING – Part 1

Some people go Trainspotting or aeroplane spotting – I go saint spotting! You never know who you’ll find in a painting or a fresco in whatever church, chapel or tabernacle.Who’s you favourite saint? And who is your patron saint, the saint whose name you bear? And can you recognise him […]

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A pilgrimage to Foligno

“Morning One. Wait then for an entirely bright morning; rise with the sun, and go to Santa Croce, with a good opera-glass in your pocket.” – John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) in Florence Mornings The provincial town of Foligno in Umbria is a three-hour journey in a regional train because […]

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Surprising Outcomes Part 2

I’d been in the Brazilian Pantanal for 6 weeks, camping on the edge of the Rio Piquiri. It was the midst of dry season, by midday 45 degrees Celsius wasn’t unusual and the ground was parched. Each day I’d head away from the river, 10km inland towards a large waterhole […]

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