It was Friday the 13^th of July, 6.30 pm local time in Belfast when I left for work with 3 bags in stead of one. I already spent some hours tidying and packing my bags because it was the start of my holiday. Because I had to get the 5 am bus the next morning I had asked at work if I could work during the night so it would be easier to get through the night. I was glad that this wasn’t a problem and so I arrived at work at 7 pm.

During work I had my laptop standing next to me for some music, which was possible because I was the only person there that night.

During the first hours Christell kept me up to date on some of the things that were being written on the forum so that I could answer to messages to me through her. For the rest of the time I just worked like it was a normal working day.

At 4 am my working time was finished, I cleared my desk so it would look tidy during my holiday, and after that I walked to the bus station from where I would depart.

It was 20 minutes to 5 when I arrived at the bus station, so I had some time to get over the exhausting walk dragging my luggage all the way. At 5 the bus was there and the trip could really begin. In the bus I have been sleeping for short moments throughout the whole trip to Dublin (just over 2 hours) Although the amount of sleep was not much the rest was just the bit that I needed after such a long day that was lying behind me already.

At the arrival in Dublin I didn’t notice anything special, but when I came out of the elevator on the first floor it was impossible to get through the departure area of the airport with my trolley, it was completely packed with people who were waiting. I found out there was a problem with the luggage system from desk 9 up so all the luggage there had to be handled manually. Of course this caused big delays with checking in and because of that also for many of the departing flights. I had to check in at desk 7, so I only had difficulties approaching the desk and when I finally arrived there it was my turn right away. Than the lady at the check in desk told me I needed my booking reference number to be able to check in. Previous times that I had been flying I never had that with me and they just used my name from my passport without a problem, now I suddenly had to go to the Ryanair service desk to get my number and then get back to the check in desk again.

I was glad that the service desk was right next to it, otherwise it would probably have cost me half an hour or more to get through again. Now it only took me a few minutes before I could check in after all. After that I finished my bottle of coke (because that cannot be taken through security) and went through security and towards the bar of the airport. It was almost 8 am at that time and I had a drink at the bar while solving some sudoku puzzles until it was 9.30. Then I went to the gate where I had to wait a little longer before I could board the plane, but shortly after 10 I had found a seat on board the plane and at 10.30 the plane took off right on schedule.

After approximately an hour the coast of Holland came in sight. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy so I could not see a lot. Den Bosch was the first place I recognized, I consider that a negative side of flying to Eindhoven, because if I fly to Schiphol I recognize everything as soon as the coast comes in sight.

I have not been able to see the tower at De Mortel from the plane, this can be because I had another route than the planes that usually fly past or because I was sitting at the wrong side of the plane.

At about 5 minutes to 1, 15 minutes before schedule, the plane landed in Eindhoven and as soon as I got out of the plane I could see Christell standing there waiting already. Then I just had to show my passport and wait for my luggage.

After greeting each other we and Marjanne, who very kindly offered to bring us to De Mortel, went to the car and drove away from the airport.

With a bit of searching we found the road that would lead us to Helmond and shortly after that Gemert appeared on the signs, so it seemed like we would find our way easily. But when we drove through Helmond there were suddenly no more signs showing the directions to Gemert so Marjanne, who had been to De Mortel before but had come from another direction at that time, started to doubt what to do. So she decided to ask a cyclist that was coming by for directions. The man gave the impression that he was not too sure about his own directions so not much later we decided to ask someone else.
This person seemed more confident, because he told us we had to watch out for an ABN AMRO bank but we never found that. We did find the stadium of the football team Helmond Sport though and there we parked the car for a wee smoke break and Christell decided to phone Harry, who was already at the tower and would be able to explain us how to drive from there.

He told that we were on the right way and not much later the tower came in sight although we haven’t seen Gemert at all.

Then it was just a matter of a few minutes before we arrived at the spotters field where we were welcomed by the people that were already there.

After greeting everyone our view was directed to the tower, where at first not much was happening. One of the young peregrines was on one of the rings but according to the other spotters this one was sleeping.

At a certain moment we heard the screaming of a peregrine. It was obvious that this was not the “sleeping” falcon, and we suspected due to the volume that this came from the backside of the tower. Although we heard the screams for some time there came no other falcon in sight, even though after a while we also heard the “screaming” at a level that it sounded like it was coming from our side of the tower. Without luck we were looking over the tower several times searching for another falcon.

In the time that passed I have made some more pictures.

In the meantime two other birds of prey passed over at great height. Probably buzzards but due to the height where they were (one of them was even so high that it could only be seen through the binoculars) this is not certain.

At a certain point I wanted to have a closer look at the tower. Christell was not able to walk up with me because she had hurt her knee a few days before, but Ans and Els offered to show me around the tower.
Of course I accepted this offer gratefully and so the three of us walked towards the tower.

In front of the entrance to the tower we first made a left turn through the fence to have a look on the field between the spotters field and the tower and at the “Snelle Loop”.

We hardly had walked onto the field when a large bird flew past quite low. A quick look at the people who had stayed at the Spotters field made clear they all were looking up with their binoculars and telescopes so they all missed this falcon coming by so low. Because of it’s size we agreed that it must have been S2. Then we also looked upwards, because S2 was already not visible anymore from the point where we stood and we saw there two falcons flying around the tower. We have been watching them for some time and made some pictures of it.

Some time later when it got quiet again we decided to walk on.
We came at a little pond and looked at the many Odonatas flying around there and all other living creatures that were visible in and around the water.

When we continued I noticed something moving before my feet. This was a very little toad. After I showed this to Els and Ans and we saw this toad jump into the pond we noticed there were a lot more of them jumping all around us and we made a picture of one of them. Unfortunately the quality of this picture is not so good but I just add this so my story is complete.

From there we walked on towards the dam in the Snelle Loop, one of the “famous” spots, so I had to take some photos there as well.

After that we rapidly continued our walk around the tower, because we spend quite a lot of time on that field and Harry was on his way to get some coffee, so the walk should not last too long.

During the walk we enjoyed how beautiful the area around the tower is. I have made a number of other pictures from the beautiful nature and the tower from different angles along the route.

When the end of our walk came nearer and we were walking on the sandy road towards the spotters field shortly before we walked past the tower a peregrine came sitting at the bottom ring next to the antenna. I thought this one had to be better visible from the place where we were sitting than from the spotters field, so I made some photos of this for the people that didn’t walk with us.

Shortly after we perpetuated this peregrine Lambert drove by in his car, heading home and telling us the coffee was already gone in the meantime.

When we arrived back at the spotters field we found out that this falcon had been visible pretty well from there after all. Not much later we saw some movement around the tower again, resulting in 3 visible peregrines on the tower, 1 on the lamp, 1 on the 2^nd ring which I have not been able to spot myself and one outside the nestbox.

Once they were sitting there the show seemed over for the day, there was not much movement anymore and more and more people were going home. We have been chatting for a while with the remaining people, which was nice, but around 6.30 pm we decided to leave as well.

After driving for a few minutes we came into a village. This was Gemert. So after searching for it on the way to the tower we found it after all after being at the tower.

After two turns we left Gemert again and had to find the right direction to get to the motorway. Through a few more turns we drove into Gemert again and that way we saw more of Gemert than we had expected after all.

In the meantime we drove on towards home and reached the motorway A50. A few kilometres before the turn to Nistelroden I saw a big bird sitting on the wall at the side of the road which looked a lot like a peregrine, although due to the speed and the short time to look at it I can not tell if it really was one or another kind of bird of prey.

The rest of the trip home was not very interesting. Once we arrived we had a seat in the garden where we could enjoye the swallows flying and playing over our heads in large numbers. With this I also made some pictures of some beautiful clouds of which one looks like a drawing.

This was the end to a long day and Christell and me agreed that it was a very special and beautiful day.