My daughter, Megan, is studying Conservation Biology and Ecology at University. She had the opportunity to go to Transylvania, Romania to help in an on-going study over the summer. This was their brief. This is a four week expedition to the agricultural region of the Tarnava Mare at the base of the Carpathian Mountains. We will be assessing the health and biodiversity of the region - trying to protect one of the richest grassland habitats in Europe. This area supports important populations of large mammals; the European Brown Bear population, in particular, is one of the largest globally.
This is closest she got to the bears which was a bit sad, they reckoned they were about an hour behind them.
Early morning to get the birds 
The benefit to early mornings was the sunrise:
Although if the mist came in that was beautiful too:
She had an amazing time, got some great experience and learnt lots too, and is going back to uni eager to get on with her learning.
So a huge thank you to everybody who bought things through her fundraising website, bought raffle tickets or who gave her things. A big shout out to James Wilson for paying for a hotel room at the airport and Gerry from http://www.marilake.co.uk/ who gave her a very generous donation that paid for internal transport and the raft of vaccinations that were needed.
Thank you all. Marie & Megan.
