After a long day of travel, five Rewilding Europe team members from Velebit (Croatia) and Eastern Carpathians (Poland) arrived at the Kuikka base camp of Wildlife Safaris Finland. Here, we would spend the next two days with experienced wildlife photographer Lassi Rautiainen, learning about his highly successful wildlife photographic and tourism business, with the aim of attaining a better understanding of the operating standards and finer details behind Finnish wildlife watching.

Dave and Anna, two environmentalists from the United Kingdom, started their “biking for rewilding” tour in April 2015 after leaving their office jobs and taking off on an adventure with a purpose. In this fourth blog you can read about their visit to the European bison project in the Kraansvlak area along the Dutch coast. This project is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). It was here, where Dave and Anna met the spectacular European bison in nature for the first time in their life.

This summer, the rewilding team has been busy designing a Tented Camp experience in the Southern Carpathians rewilding landscape. The infrastructure for the Tented Camp is made up of highly durable tents and other amenities designed to provide comfort for tourists who want to spend a couple of nights in a remote and wild natural area, explore the surroundings with specialized wildlife guides but also offer an exclusive experience to those who are not the usual campers.

On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our third stop was Parc Naziunal Svizzer – the Swiss National Park. Established in 1914, it was the first national park in the Alps and by now one of the oldest national parks in Europe. It is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).

Born and raised in a small village among the mountain ranges of central Portugal, Pedro’s interest in the natural world began at an early age. Over time, what started as a child’s natural curiosity turned into a serious academic pursuit as Pedro, after experimenting with different pathways in his early student days, eventually graduated from the University of Lisbon with a Master of Science in Biology.

On our cycle tour of rewilding areas in Europe, our second stop was Muntanya d’Alinyà, a living mountain in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees. Muntanya d’Alinyà is one of the largest private nature reserves in Spain and member of the European Rewilding Network (ERN).

When I heard that Rhodope Mountains have become the seventh Rewilding Europe’s area, the very first thought that crossed my mind was “Rhodopes cannot go any wilder”. I have always considered Rhodope Mountains as wildlife heaven due to the relatively small, even negligible human disturbance. Few months later as a Rewilding Europe volunteer, I set out on a journey to find out what can make the Rhodopes wilder than the wild place I last visited before.

Danube Delta rewilding area, a biosphere reserve and UNESCO heritage site from 1992, is presented in this blog through the eyes of volunteers monitoring the beavers from Parcheș village. Beaver monitoring is a part of the initiative here set up by Rewilding Europe, together with WWF Romania.

We are Anna and Dave, two environmentalists who had been working London office jobs for several years. We were becoming discontented with our lifestyles and wanted to be outdoors, helping people and wildlife. We decided to quit our jobs and have an adventure with a purpose. Having read about Rewilding Europe and the rewilding areas in Europe, we wanted to learn more about them, see the challenges and successes, and get involved.  So we set off on a bike tour!

This May, a small team from the Croatian adventure travel company Adria Velebitica, a guest couple and Dutch bushcraft specialists from Extra Survival, joined Rewilding Europe for a Rewilding Tented Camp training programme in Velebit, Croatia.