Update from our conservation holiday volunteering with lynx, wolves and wildcats in the Carpathian mountains of Slovakia (www.biosphere-expeditions.org/slovakia)

Hello everyone and welcome to the first entry of the 2014 Slovakia diary. We’re Peter Schuette, your expedition leader, and Astrid Callomon, your assistant expedition leader. At the moment we are busy preparing the paperwork and all the little things that need to be done before we head off to Slovakia in six days. On Sunday we will meet Dr. Matthias Hammer, Biosphere Expeditions’ executive director to pack up all the gear and then drive to Vienna go collect three Land Rovers kindly provided by Land Rover Austria for the expedition. Then we’ll also meet Tomas, our scientist, to drive on to base in the Velka Fatra. Tomas was there for a recce two weeks ago – no snow, but temperatures are dropping, so keep your fingers crossed for some good tracking conditions.

Maybe – for your personal preparation – you’ve already had a look at the 2013 report just published. If not, have a look now to get a feel for what you will be doing and why. If you want to get an impression of what it will be like on the ground, then why not look at the old diary at https://biosphereexpeditions.wordpress.com/category/expedition-blogs/slovakia-2013-expedition-blogs/ or the expedition summary video below

If you want to ‘meet’ Tomas before you actually meet him, have a look at this

Peter is here

Astrid is our new kid on the block, expedition leader in training and assistant leader to Peter, so no videos of her yet (but we will soon fix this). More about her is on www.biosphere-expeditions.org/about > “Staff”.

Peter’s mobile number will be xxxx (to be confirmed once it’s switched on an working by next Tuesday). Astrid’s number should be xxx. Remember that both are for emergency purposes only (such as missing assembly).

We’ll be back with updates as we pack up and leave. We hope your preparations are going well too. Safe travels and see you in Slovakia!

Peter and Astrid

Update from our conservation holiday volunteering with lynx, wolves and wildcats in the Carpathian mountains of Slovakia.