Brian Stone
A Stone chatting
Would you go to a country where you may have to bird without optics?
Just back from a week in Jordan. The main purpose was to get my mother to the main cultural sites, enough of an effort alone with her health and mobility problems. So I always intended the birding to be a sideline. The intention was see what I encountered casually and return on a dedicated trip to clean up on others.
I'd heard optics could attract questions at customs on entry to the country but wasn't prepared for having scope and bins confiscated for the duration of my stay. I had field guides handy and was clearly a tourist travelling with an older lady but no amount of friendly pleading would persuade them to allow me to keep even just the binoculars.
They decided they were 'military equipment' and that was that. The joke is of course that they are allowing through camera equipment all the time. Some of that will have far greater optical reach and be capable of filming as well - as did mine!
I should say that all (and there were at least 10 officials involved in total) were friendly and courteous throughout.
Return of the kit was straightforward at the end of the week, although there was some minor inconvenience as we'd allowed extra time in case it took longer and were not allowed to leave the airport. 4 hours of Amman airport is plenty, especially if half of that has to spent in limbo awaiting check in.
So the question is, did I get unlucky? If you got a different set of customs officials would you get your kit through? If you had only bins would you stand a better chance (I was in two minds about bothering with a scope)? How would you get on with a large DSLR lens? Would you want to take the chance given that all cabin and hold luggage is scanned on arrival?
Chatting to some officials on arrival I learned that 2 others had come in with scopes that day. It wasn't made clear if they were allowed to take them into the country in the end or not. They mentioned that you should get permission in advance but not how you might go about that.
In the end I managed surprisingly well for wildlife with only my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX50 HS), which thankfully wasn't even looked at despite being considerably more of threat to security. I'll post a trip report in time.
Just back from a week in Jordan. The main purpose was to get my mother to the main cultural sites, enough of an effort alone with her health and mobility problems. So I always intended the birding to be a sideline. The intention was see what I encountered casually and return on a dedicated trip to clean up on others.
I'd heard optics could attract questions at customs on entry to the country but wasn't prepared for having scope and bins confiscated for the duration of my stay. I had field guides handy and was clearly a tourist travelling with an older lady but no amount of friendly pleading would persuade them to allow me to keep even just the binoculars.
They decided they were 'military equipment' and that was that. The joke is of course that they are allowing through camera equipment all the time. Some of that will have far greater optical reach and be capable of filming as well - as did mine!
I should say that all (and there were at least 10 officials involved in total) were friendly and courteous throughout.
Return of the kit was straightforward at the end of the week, although there was some minor inconvenience as we'd allowed extra time in case it took longer and were not allowed to leave the airport. 4 hours of Amman airport is plenty, especially if half of that has to spent in limbo awaiting check in.
So the question is, did I get unlucky? If you got a different set of customs officials would you get your kit through? If you had only bins would you stand a better chance (I was in two minds about bothering with a scope)? How would you get on with a large DSLR lens? Would you want to take the chance given that all cabin and hold luggage is scanned on arrival?
Chatting to some officials on arrival I learned that 2 others had come in with scopes that day. It wasn't made clear if they were allowed to take them into the country in the end or not. They mentioned that you should get permission in advance but not how you might go about that.
In the end I managed surprisingly well for wildlife with only my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX50 HS), which thankfully wasn't even looked at despite being considerably more of threat to security. I'll post a trip report in time.