Fuerteventura is probably the best place in the world to see the rare Houbara Bustard Brian Small, Limosa Holidays

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1 Canary Islands FUERTEVENTURA IN AUTUMN LIMOSA TOUR INFO PACK Fuerteventura is probably the best place in the world to see the rare Houbara Bustard Brian Small, Limosa Holidays 2017 Monday 6th - Sunday 12th November (7 days) 2018 Monday 5th - Sunday 11th November (7 days) Single-centre, small group tour with Stephen Daly A 7-day, single-centre birdwatching tour to Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands. Fuerteventura is home to its own unique endemic bird, the Canary Islands Stonechat, and is probably the best place in the world to see Houbara Bustard. Three further Macaronesian endemics - Plain Swift, Berthelot's Pipit and Atlantic Canary - occur on the island and other specialities include Cream-coloured Courser, African Blue Tit and Trumpeter Finch. A November visit adds a chance of autumn migrants, too. Autumn birding on Fuerteventura - easternmost of the Canary Islands Endemics include the unique Canary Islands Stonechat, Plain Swift and Berthelot s Pipit Probably the best place in the world to see the endangered Houbara Bustard Cream-coloured Courser, African Blue Tit and Desert Grey Shrike among other specialities Chances to stumble upon Afro-European migrants and even the odd trans-atlantic vagrant African Tiger, Greenish Black-tip and Green-striped White among possible butterflies Single-centre, small group tour - maximum of 7 participants Expertly led by Limosa guide Stephen Daly What's Included? Limosa Tour Leader Flights - London Gatwick to Fuerteventura 6 nights at a charming rural hotel near La Oliva, well away from the busy tourist resorts All main meals included - with water provided during the day All local travel, entry fees, airport taxes and tour based tips LIMOSA HOLIDAYS, West End Farmhouse, Chapelfield, Stalham, Norfolk NR12 9EJ (UK) TEL: +44 (0) info@limosaholidays.co.uk WEB: limosaholidays.co.uk

2 Outline Itinerary Day 1: Fly London Gatwick-Fuerteventura. Transfer to hotel. La Oliva (6 nts) Days 2-6: Birding on Fuerteventura Day 7: Fly Fuerteventura-London Gatwick Tour Overview This one-week birdwatching tour to the Canary Islands features a six-night stay on the island of Fuerteventura, one of the two easternmost islands of this fascinating Atlantic archipelago - and the most interesting for birds. Lying just 60 miles off the Moroccan coast, islands in the eastern part of the Canaries group are more strongly influenced by the proximity of North Africa and its hot, dry climate, and so present a very different flora and fauna to that which is found on the wetter and more westerly islands in the group (such as Tenerife and Gran Canaria). On Fuerteventura, the rocky slopes of once mighty volcanoes have been sculpted by the wind into an endless variety of surreal shapes, and peculiar cactus-like Euphorbias and giant Lobelias can be found. This arid, semi-desert landscape is home to the unique Canary Islands Stonechat, an attractive endemic species that is found only on the island of Fuerteventura and nowhere else. Fuerteventura is also a vital stronghold of the endangered Houbara Bustard; indeed, it is probably the best place in the world to see this rapidly disappearing species. As we search for these two scarce and very special birds, we should come across a range of other desert dwelling specialists, such as Creamcoloured Courser, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and Trumpeter Finch. Being an island, the overall range of species is quite low (we can expect to see species during the week), but this is more than made up for in quality. Three further Macaronesian endemics - Plain Swift, Berthelot s Pipit and small numbers of Atlantic Canary - also find a home on Fuerteventura, while the likes of Barbary Partridge, Egyptian Vulture, Laughing Dove, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Desert Grey Shrike, Spectacled Warbler and African Blue Tit are among an array of other possible treats in store. Cory's Shearwaters are regularly present offshore and waders we should see include Black-winged Stilt and Kentish Plover. Several pairs of Barbary Falcon now breed on the island and we might be lucky. Another appealing aspect of any spring or autumn birding tour to the Canary Islands is the chance of encountering windblown migrants from Africa or even a trans-atlantic vagrant or two from North America. November is a good month to search for these. We will visit the two small wetlands on the island, where we can expect to find Ruddy Shelduck (a relatively recent arrival to Fuerteventura, now well established on the island), and where 'waifs and strays' have included Marbled Duck and Ringnecked Duck. We are based throughout at the comfortable Oasis Casa Vieja, a small rural hotel situated near La Oliva, inland and away from the island's sprawling coastal resorts. The rooms are delightful and the food is good. Stephen Daly has visited the Canary Islands many times, especially the island of Fuerteventura with its enticing resident birds and potential for turning up something unexpected on migration. Daily Itinerary Day 1 FLY TO FUERTEVENTURA Our birdwatching tour to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands begins with a scheduled flight from London Gatwick direct to the island. On arrival on Fuerteventura we make the short transfer north (about 30 minutes) to our hotel for the week, the charming and comfortable Hotel Oasis Casa Vieja, near La Oliva in the north of the island. Night La Oliva Days 2-6 FUERTEVENTURA Measuring approximately 60 miles long by 18 miles wide, Fuerteventura lies at the eastern end of this Atlantic archipelago and is second largest info@limosaholidays.co.uk

3 of the Canary Islands (after Tenerife). Its position just 60 miles off the coast of North Africa also makes Fuerteventura one of the two closest of the Canary Islands to the African mainland. Indeed its dry, desert-like terrain reflects that of southern Morocco and birding highlights similarly include a range of arid country specialists such as Cream-coloured Courser, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and Spectacled Warbler that can sometimes be tricky to find elsewhere. Egyptian Vultures still soar over the island's hills and plains, although numbers are low nowadays and they can often be hard to find. The two star birds on Fuerteventura are the Canary Islands Stonechat - a perky Macaronesian endemic that s found only on Fuerteventura and nowhere else in the world - and the furtive Houbara Bustard. The former has a penchant for the island s vegetated barrancos (arid gorges), while the latter is a bird of the island s semi-desert hillsides and plains. As the population of Houbara Bustards elsewhere in the world continues to dwindle due to persistent hunting, Fuerteventura is now probably the best place to catch up with this gravely endangered bird. Plain Swift, Berthelot s Pipit and the scarce Atlantic Canary are three further Macaronesian endemics we shall be looking out for during our stay. As we search for them, we should come across the engaging Trumpeter Finch and more wary Barbary Partridge, two semi-desert specialists which are more numerous and generally easier to find here than elsewhere in the Canary Islands. Lesser Short-toed Larks are also numerous on Fuerteventura and other notable species we should encounter during our travels around the island include Stone-curlew, Kentish Plover, Laughing Dove, Desert Grey Shrike and African Blue Tit. We'll scan offshore for Cory's Shearwater and watch the coastal cliffs and skies for Barbary Falcon. Barbary Ground Squirrels scurry amongst the rocks at our feet, although they are not native to the Canaries having been introduced to the islands from Morocco. Unsurprisingly, wetland areas are few and far between in this arid landscape so the island's reservoirs act as a magnet to migrant birds. Ruddy Shelduck and Black-winged Stilt are resident and in November a variety of passage waders are also possible around the shore. Little Ringed Plover, Ruff, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Dunlin and Little Stint could all be about. Windblown wetland birds of all shapes and sizes have a habit of turning up here on migration and more unusual sightings in recent years have included Bittern, Squacco Heron, Marbled Duck and even Allen s Gallinule! This is also a good time to check for vagrants from across the pond and North American waterfowl such as Blue-winged Teal and Ring-necked Duck are not infrequently recorded on the island. Five further nights at La Oliva Day 7 FUERTEVENTURA, FLY LONDON Depending on airline schedules, we may have time to enjoy some final birding on the island today before catching our flight back to London Gatwick, where our birdwatching tour to Fuerteventura concludes. Trip Information Group Limit 7 participants & 1 leader What to Expect Our tours to the Canary Islands are not run-of-the-mill package holidays, bought off the peg. We use scheduled not charter flights and our trips to Fuerteventura feature six nights at a charming rural hotel, inland and away from the sprawling hotel resorts on the coast. Our tour price includes the cost of flights, all accommodation and main meals, plus all birding excursions, transportation and guidance. Birds species Butterflies Fuerteventura has a small but fascinating list of butterflies. We may be out of season for some, but those we should see include the tiny African Grass Blue, African Tiger and Monarch. Accommodation Six nights at the charming and comfortable Hotel Oasis Casa Vieja, near La Oliva in the north of Fuerteventura. All rooms are en suite info@limosaholidays.co.uk

4 Meals All main meals are included in the tour price, commencing with dinner at the hotel on Day 1 and concluding with breakfast there on Day 7. Breakfast and dinner at the hotel; lunches will usually be picnics although we sometimes enjoy a sit down meal at a local venta. Walking Easy. Short walks. Comfy walking shoes or lightweight boots with good grip recommended. Training shoes may suffice at times but note that the volcanic rock can be hard and rough underfoot at times, so we advise you bring shoes with sturdy, corrugated soles. Weather The climate in the Canary Islands is pleasant and near perfect all year round. Lying closest Africa, the more easterly island of Fuerteventura averages a little warmer and drier than Tenerife in the west. Expect temperatures in the range of 18-21C, with highs of 24C and up to 9 hours of sunshine. Rainfall is low yearround on Fuerteventura; March and November each average just three wet days and monthly totals of just 20 mm. Flights Scheduled flights from London Gatwick direct to Fuerteventura with Easyjet. Flying time is approx. 4 hrs 30 mins. Ground Transport By minibus. Tour Cost 2017 (7 days): 1595 (inc flights from London) Land only cost: 1445 Deposit: 300 Single Supp: (7 days): 1595 *1 (inc flights from London) Land only cost: 1445 *1 Deposit: 300 Single Supp: 145 *1 Cost includes Expert Limosa guide; scheduled flights London Gatwick-Fuerteventura; 6 nights accommodation on Fuerteventura; all main meals (with water provided); minibus transport; all entry fees, tour based tips & airport taxes, map and Limosa checklist of birds for the tour. Cost excludes Insurance, drinks, airport meals/snacks & other items of a personal nature. * prices provisional, TBC summer 2017 About Your Guides Stephen Daly Stephen is a principal Limosa guide living in southern Germany with his wife Patty and their young family. A birdwatcher since the age of eight, his first birding memories are of Aberlady Bay on Scotland s Firth of Forth. Having subsequently lived and worked in the UK, Germany, France and latterly southern Spain, he has now returned to live in Germany. Stephen s hobbies include walking, painting, music, reading and single malt whiskies. This year we will again be putting his linguistic skills (he is fluent in French, German, Spanish and of course English) and wide-ranging knowledge to good use on a range of Limosa tours, from those in Germany and Spain through to Gambia and the Canary Islands. Stephen is a regular visitor to the Canary Islands, with a special penchant for the island of Fuerteventura. Photo left: Canary Islands Stonechat is endemic to the island of Fuerteventura Brian Small, Limosa Holidays info@limosaholidays.co.uk

5 Financial Security Limosa Holidays is a fully bonded Tour Operator and a member of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO). We hold an ATOL (Air Tour Operators Licence) granted by the CAA, providing for your protection in the event of Limosa Holidays' insolvency. Our licence number is ATOL For tours not including the cost of a flight from the UK or for holidays booked by you as Land Only, all payments made to us are fully bonded through the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT). Our ABTOT membership number is For details please see our brochure or website: Limosa Loyalty Discount We are proud of the number of loyal customers who travel regularly with us. As our way of saying thank you, we offer a Frequent Travel Discount. Under the scheme, everyone who takes four trips with us is entitled to claim a 5% discount on their 5th trip *1. Remember to request your discount at time of booking! *1 Please note: This offer applies to the basic tour cost only and excludes certain commissionbased trips, extras such as additional flights, private extensions and cancellations. Discounts cannot be given in lieu of tour deposits or off the cost of single room supplements. How To Book Check availability on our website or with our office. We are happy to hold Provisional Reservations for up to 7 days. After this, we do require a Booking Form and deposit to confirm your place on tour. Any unconfirmed space will be released. Book Online, by Phone or by Post You can book and pay the deposit simply and securely Online via our website, using the Book This Tour button on the relevant tour page or the Booking tab at the top of the page. Telephone bookings must be confirmed in writing by completion of a Booking Form (there's one tucked inside every brochure or as a PDF download from our website), which can be mailed to us in the time honoured way. Be sure to read our Booking Conditions and General Information (found at the back of our brochure, on our website or available from our office on request) prior to booking. When to Book Early booking is advised since flights and accommodation are much more easily secured well in advance. To encourage early booking, we are pleased to offer an Early Bird Discount - see our current brochure or website for details. Our tours are limited to small group sizes. So they can fill up quickly - sometimes even before our new brochure comes out! Single rooms in particular can often be in short supply and among the first to go, so do try to plan well ahead if you definitely require one of these. Last-minute Bookings: We inevitably receive a few unexpected cancellations over the course of a season so it is always worth enquiring about vacancies on any tour - even for those departing in just a few weeks! Payments The amount of booking deposit per person is shown alongside every tour. We accept deposit payments by debit card, cheque (payable to Limosa Holidays and drawn on a UK bank in GB Pounds Sterling) and BACS (please ask for our bank details). We also accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards, with no transaction charge on payment of tour deposits. Full payment of the balance is due not later than 12 weeks prior to departure (20 weeks in the case of certain tours such as cruises or those involving rail travel). We will send you an invoice before the balance is due. We accept payment for balances (and interim payments) by cheque, BACS or UK debit card info@limosaholidays.co.uk

6 We also accept balances (and interim payments) by credit card or overseas debit card but with a charge of 2.5% of the transaction amount to help offset card company charges. [Note we do not retain your card details, which are destroyed once used. This means we may need to phone you again for details for subsequent payments.] Payment by overseas customers must be in GB Pounds Sterling and may be made by transfer to our bank (please ask for our bank details), or by overseas debit or credit card with a 2.5% transaction charge. Please note we do not accept cheques on US Banks in US Dollars, or cheques in Euros or Eurocheques. Late Booking Payments: In order for us to guarantee your airline seats, hotels etc., full payment is required at time of booking for all late bookings (i.e. bookings made within 12 weeks of departure). Other Things You Need To Know Passports & Visas For UK passport holders, your passport must be valid for the proposed duration of your stay. This applies to the whole of Spain, including the Canary Islands. No additional period of validity beyond this is required, but when travelling anywhere overseas we always recommend that your passport has a minimum of 6 months left to run after your intended date of return home in case of unforeseen delay. VISA NOT REQUIRED by UK passport holders for this tour. Holders of non-uk passports should contact the nearest Spanish embassy or consulate to enquire whether or not they require a visa. If a visa is required, you need to apply locally. If the embassy or consulate requires you to provide a letter confirming that you are booked on an allinclusive tour, please contact our office and we will be happy to provide one. Health & Vaccinations Compulsory vaccinations: None. Recommended vaccinations: For travel everywhere (even within the UK), we recommend you check you are up-to-date with protection against tetanus, polio and hepatitis A. The above information, together with that contained within our Travel Information sheets (sent to everyone who books), outlines health requirements for this tour. Please note that these details are given for guidance only - and are only for certain diseases - and you must consult your doctor in good time prior to travel as to what immunisations (if any) are needed for your chosen holiday. For full and up-to-date health information we urge everyone to consult The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) website prior to booking any overseas holiday. NaTHNaC is funded by the UK Government s Health Protection Agency and provides health information for both health professionals and travellers, with information compiled by its own clinical and scientific team. You can search for individual country requirements, which are updated regularly. Your Safety & Travel Advice An unavoidable aspect of travelling abroad nowadays is the risk it may pose to your safety and security. The best advice on current risks is provided by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). In order to assess and protect against any risks in your chosen destination we strongly recommended that you refer to the relevant FCO Travel Advice - both prior to booking and regularly before you travel. See It is standard Limosa policy for our office to send a copy of the relevant FCO Travel Advice about the tour to all participants along with their Final Letter (ca. 2-3 weeks prior to the trip). Travel aware - staying safe and healthy abroad - is a travel safety campaign run by the FCO, and another useful resource. Go to: info@limosaholidays.co.uk

7 Travel Insurance Good travel insurance is essential before setting off on any overseas trip. In common with all responsible tour operators, it is a condition of booking that all clients are fully and adequately insured before travelling overseas with us. Your travel insurance should cover against cancellation, curtailment, missed departure, delay, personal accident, death, loss of baggage and valuables (see note below), personal liability and legal expenses. Most importantly, your insurance must cover you fully in respect of medical care and repatriation should you become too ill to continue with the tour, including the cost of emergency evacuation by helicopter or air ambulance should this be necessary. Note that passenger liability insurance covering the transportation that we hire, particularly in Third World countries, may be inadequate; it is therefore important that your insurance cover includes sufficient provision for your dependents in the event of an accident. We recommend that you obtain travel insurance as soon as possible after booking your holiday to ensure you are protected right from the word go in the event of unexpected cancellation prior to departure due to accident or illness. You must inform your insurers of any pre-existing medical conditions (including those of persons not necessarily travelling but upon whom your holiday may depend) that may require treatment during a period of overseas travel or might cause you to cancel the trip. Once you have arranged your insurance, please be sure to send us the following essential details: name and contact details of your insurance provider, your policy number, expiry date and your insurers 24hr Emergency Assistance number. Important Things to Note about Insurance Travel Insurance does not normally provide sufficient cover for valuable optical equipment, which is often best protected under your own household insurance policy. If in doubt ask your insurers for advice prior to travel. Most travel insurance policies limit the amount of cover, typically up to a maximum tour cost of 5000 per person. If the tour you are booking exceeds this amount, additional cover can usually be provided upon payment of additional premium. We recommend all travellers check their individual policy limit to ensure the full cost of their holiday is covered. Arranging Your Insurance: due to UK Government legislation, under Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulations, we are not allowed to offer or recommend travel related insurance to customers. Premiums can vary widely according to your age, needs, health, choice of destination and other factors, while many people nowadays have Annual Travel Insurance cover. For these reasons, we leave you free to shop around and pick your own policy, one best suited to your own individual needs. General Information Our website gives easy access to detailed tour itineraries (Tour Info Packs), trip reports, trip photos and the latest Limosa News. Special Diets & Other Requests We pass on all such requests to the airlines, hotels and other suppliers, and do our best to ensure (but of course cannot guarantee) that your needs will be met. Please be sure to tell us about these (in as much detail as possible) at the time of booking, to allow good time to make the necessary arrangements. Smoking Almost all of our clients prefer a smoke-free environment. For the enjoyment and comfort of all, we ask that smokers refrain from smoking in proximity to the group and respect our NO SMOKING policy in the vehicle, at meal times and when watching wildlife. Any Questions? If you have any questions at any time, you ll find our office staff friendly, efficient, approachable - and just a phone call away, eager info@limosaholidays.co.uk

8 to assist you in every way. Our office is open hrs Mon-Fri, and can also be reached by fax and . In the event we are unable to take your call, please leave a message on our answerphone (24 hrs) and our office will contact you as soon as we can. Thank you for your interest in our tours. We do hope that you will be able to join us - and we look forward to hearing from you again! revck info@limosaholidays.co.uk