Mark's Wildlife and Adventures Blog

Halfway through our holiday in Majorca we visited a nice quiet beach, its not far from our villa and its away from touristy areas so its more quiet which was good.



The sea was lovelly and warm and great to swim in, i even saw lots of little fish while swimming in it.



This area is protected land which means nothing is to be built on it so the surrounding landscape is covered in trees and shrubs.



Foxy at Playa Mon Drago Beach



Then i took Foxy for a swim inn the sea!





And got Mum to film me and Foxy too.



After a nice swim, i made a nice lagoon by digging in the sand a lot which was fun.



Foxy sunbathing in the lagoon!



Me in the lagoon i made, it looked really cool.



Foxy in the lagoon video.



Making an ajustment to the lagoon.



Digging out a cave, its great fun!



We will come back here another evening for a nice walk, i played in the sea for a while longer and then took some photos back towards the beach we walked to, it looks stunningly beautiful.











I had a great time and when we got back to Cas Tallador, i jumped into the pool with Foxy to get the salt and sand out of him hehe.



Hope you enjoyed part 3! more to come in part 4.

On Saturday 13th June i went on the 8:30am train to Gatwick Airport and it was really exciting because iam going on holiday to Majorca yay! The weather was sunny and cloudy and no rain which was good. Here is Foxy enjoying the train ride up to Gatwick.



I arrived at Gatwick around 10am and went to my usual spotting place and met someone i knew who spots reguarly too and we chatted and took photos of planes. Here are a few of them.

easyJet A319.



Foxy enjoying the planes!



I saw a Butterfly by the ditch too! Think its a Tortoiseshell.



Flybe Dash 8.



Emirates 777-300.



After the Emirates plane landed i made my way to North Terminal check in to wait for my family to arrive and chatted to my Brother and his girlfriend and when we were all together we joined the long check in queue and got through security and went to a whetherspoons to have a quick lunch before going to the departure gate.

I took a few photos of the airside activities too while we waited.

Interesting 737 and easyJet A319.



BA 737.



Gatwick Tower.



Video of airside.



After lunch, we made our way to gate 109 which was the new satellite terminal which is accessed by a tall bridge that goes over a live taxiway which was cool, i took many photos, using my Fuji for this as we had to hurry so i didnt change between cameras too much.

Mum walking along the bridge, its a 2000ft long one!



You can get cool shots from up here!



We made it to gate 109 and i took a photo of our plane, an easyJet A319 registered G-EZBC - one of 227 in the fleet!



Our plane at stand 109.



Boarding information.



I got onto the plane ahead of my family to get a window seat, well you just got to havent you!

My boarding pass.



I sat down in my window seat over the wing and took a photo of the safety card.



Foxy enjoying his flight!



Foxy on easyJet video.



We pushed back on time and i took a few photos of other planes at the stands, mostly easyJet!



Video of taxiing to the runway 26L.



View from my seat.



Holding for takeoff, i see my spotting friend just forward of the Flybe Dash 8, hes wearing a bright yellow reflective jacket, nice to see things from the other way!



Video of taking off from 26L.



It was a great takeoff and was funny to hear the kid behind me going *we are landing" as we left the ground! I took a few more photos as we climbed out, we flew over Bognor but it was cloudy so couldnt see much.





Bye bye England! leaving south coast far behind!



View behind my seat.



Me on the plane at 39,000ft.



Another cabin shot looking towards the front of the plane.



Video of Foxy enjoying the flight.





I took this shot of the winglet with my Canon, bit tricky with the long lens lol!



The flight was nearly 2 hours long and there was a storm over the Pyrenees so we had to dodge that and continue towards Barcelona and turn left and descend towards Majorca, how exciting!

It was nice to see clear blue sky again near the Balearics, our plane does a nice descending left turn.



Yay here is Majorca.



On finals for Palma's 06L runway.



Video of landing at Palma and taxiing to the gate.



I took some more photos on the way to the gate and saw another easyJet A319.



Iberworld A330.



Interesting BAE 146.



Parking next to a Jet2 757.



It was a great flight and we all enjoyed it. As we were getting off, the pilot allowed me to take a photo of the Cockpit!



That was nice of him and i said thanks and we went to arrivals and got our luggage and went on a bus to the hire car area. Then we got the 2 cars and drove to our Villa called Cas Tallador near Porto Petro, 5 kms from Cala'Dor just before nightfall.

When we got all unpacked, we all went for a refreshing night time dip in the pool! It was nice to do that after flying and then we had the welcome pack dinner provided for us which was good and yummy.

Yay! we are in majorca! hope you enjoyed Part 1, more to come in Part 2 later on.

Rest of Part 1 photos here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21967655@N08/sets/72157620677606426/

Hope you enjoyed that!

I have three new Fancy Rats to keep Bella company, i got them a week ago and they got on perfectly, i got Sooty (the white one) 2 weeks ago and then the pet shop rang and said they had two more so i bought them too.

Sweep and Soo are a cross-Dumbo/Hairless rat breed and have little fur and are really tiny! About 7 weeks old now and Sooty is 10 weeks old.

Here they are in their first photoshoot together.



They are soooooo cute!

Sooty is all white except for sootish markings on her nose and base of tail so thats how she got her name, Sweep has the Dumbo ears and Soo is the black one with the usual Rex colours.

Nice names for them named after my favourite characters from a kids TV show back in the late 80's/early 90's Rainbow.

I would have to do something more trickier to make a blog photo like the current one of Shadow Sandy and Bella!

Hope you love them too folks!

Will get more shots of them soon when they grow less shy, i managed to catch then napping earlier! Bella loves them and at feeding time she was sharing her rat treat milk drops with Sweep awwww!

The saying goes like this.

One for Sorrow.
Two for Joy.
Three for a Girl.
Four for a Boy.
Five for Silver.
Six for Gold.
Seven for a Secret never to be Told!

Well iam glad i saw 6 of them and here they are!



Iam thinking that these must be four young Magpies with the parents on top of the arial.



They stayed for around 10 minutes making a racket Then they flew off, not something you see everyday from your bedroom window!



Hope you are enjoying the weather folks, its schorching out there.

The restoration work in Hotham Park is complete with just a few more growing areas to establish and a black metal fence around the boating lake and new pond to make this part of the park a Dog free zone which is handy for kids to play around. I went to see the celebration events and had a go on the mini train too.

Map of the park and event list on front gate.



A train crossing feature.



This gravel trail will soon be part of the extended train track.



I saw some wooden scultures on show, they were on sale too.





The new pond looks good so far, both sides taken from the bridge.





Sussex Wildlife information stalls.





Concert band at the Band Stand.



Bognor in Bloom tent.



The Thai food stall had the shortest queue so i had lunch here.



I had a look round in the main Marquee tent and bought some jams and Hotham Park souvenirs, some are quite pricey but its nice to support it...... £2.30 for sandwiches was a bit much though! this isnt London's Hyde Park!

Then i went to see the small animal farm section and saw some cute Ducklings, very large Rabbits, sheep, goats and a couple of pigs.









They were aware about the Swine flu alert so provided hygienic hand gel that must be put on near the animals, even if you dont touch them so i washed my hands too.

Then i made my way towards the mini train and was amazed at the queue! There was a lot of people here and that was a good sign, both local car parks were full and they had to make the coach park into a car park too!

Dandelion Seeds.



Me on the minature train.



Foxy enjoying the ride.



The original pond has its waterfall back and will be great when the new plants establish.



While i was walking back through the park i saw a magnificent Conker tree in full bloom, like hundreds of candles on its leaves.



Close up of one of the candles.



New signposts are up now so you dont get lost.



Its really wonderful how Hotham Park was restored and its nice i have been keeping a photo diary of it. Iam sure they would like it if i made a CD of it and send it to the trust as they would like a before, during and after sequence of it.

All photos here, taken with the Fuji.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21967655@N08/sets/72157618186173039/

I did a few videos too.

Mini farm.



Train ride.



Foxy on the Hotham park train, hear the kid behind me saying hello lol.....



Hope you enjoyed that folks. One day i will do a photo diary of the main happenings of before, during and after the restorations and will keep taking photos of the new areas as they establish.