"Tales from the Road"
Today is our first day in and on the water, seeking out sperm whales off Dominica Island.
The stories can be found on our “The Daily’s” page.
We won’t be updating our blog during our time here on Dominica, other than this post of course.
I will be updating the trip report at the end of everyday.
So if you want to know what is going on, please visit the link I will be sharing at the end of this post.
Thank you so much.
Blogging will resume when the sperm whale trip ends…
I finally made it to Dominica.
Only took me two days.
Because of where I live in deep South Texas, I am often forced to fly a day early to get to most of my destinations, just in case a flight is delayed.
Which sometimes happens.
Airlines are not perfect, they are full of flaws.
When I get to chatting with my travel buddies, we can sit down and trade horror story, after horror story of the crap we often go through to get from point A to point B on a plane.
But…in the end, I don’t mind.
To me, airplanes are highways to the world!
I love them, despite their many flaws.
This morning I woke up in a hotel in Miami, and now I am in a hotel on a beautiful island in the Caribbean.
I get to meet interesting people and see interesting places.
Monday morning I will be in/on the water looking for sperm whales to swim with.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I have the day for me. I am not sure what I want to do yet.
Explore the island… or go shore diving?
Not sure?
But thanks to a plane… these are my options.
Goodnight from Dominica!
Finally our girl left the darkness of her cave and began swimming up-current (thankfully), to find an exit out of the river.
We didn’t know she was trying to leave the river when she was swimming, we figured she might be headed to another hiding hole.
These snakes are notorious for having quite a few hiding spots in their hunting territories.
When she left the cave, she swam through the roots of the tree that were not only guarding the entrance to her cave, but also offered support to the soft mud that made up the walls of her secret dwelling.
The trees and grasses help prevent erosion by stabilizing the sediment with their tangled root systems.
This in turn helps maintain water quality, filters pollutants and traps sediments originating from land and us humans.
Nature is amazing.
Back to our girl…she slowly emerged from the roots of the tree and out into an area where we had a bit more light, and it was awesome.
We were all there (the four of us), taking turns snapping images of her as she poked her head out of the shadows.
When she began swimming out of the tree, we were ready, all of us were lined up, waiting patiently for her to fully emerge.
When she slithered out, we did not know what direction she was going to take, she chose swimming into the current, my guess is so that the dirt and debris would not obstruct her view.
This was great for us, as we would get clean shots of her beautiful head free of the silt and dirt.
She slowly came out of the darkness, silted debris poured out around her… and damn, she just kept coming.
She was a big girl, at least 5-6 meters long, and thick!
These are the moments that we all live for.
This is the stuff I dream about.
When you plan a trip like this, you want moments for everyone who joins you, where they will see a big prehistoric snake swimming underwater.
This is why we are all here… and what we all dreamed about. A big snake, up close and fully submerged underwater in crystal clear water.
We were all very excited and firing away.
The snake made her way slowly up river and we slowly, but excitedly followed her. Knowing full well, the encounter was going to end the minute she left the river.
We were not forcing the encounter, nor did we touch her.
Just as expected, the snake found the exit she was looking for and slowly slithered herself out of the river, disappearing into the underbrush that made up her mysterious world.
We all surfaced with massive smiles on our faces. The excitement we all felt was electric.
I was beaming with pride, knowing our friends experienced an extraordinary day.
This day was magic and everything I love about wildlife photography with special animals in special places.
Thank you for reading!
I posted today on Social media, a photo from a trip we ran, back in September of 2021.
We were in Brazil diving with anacondas.
On this particular day we were on a beautiful river in Bonito, Brazil.
The water was gin clear, and the scenery was spectacular.
We were slowly cruising down the river looking for snakes. We were watching the edges of the river, as well as the river banks for any snakes that might hiding in the water, or basking in the sun.
We finally found one on the river bank. She was a big 5-6 meter long snake. She was so beautiful lying there in the sun.
We slowly approached, but she dropped in the water to hide from us.
AND hide she did!
When you are a big snake in super clear water it should be impossible to disappear. But these snakes are territorial, and she knows the area she lives in well.
Snakes this size get big by being smart and cautious.
The area she has chosen to live in is surrounded by a forest. The river has a lot of trees, tall grasses and forest debris along the edge of the river, so she disappeared fast.
The search was on, we didn’t want to lose her.
We began searching the edges of the water with masks and snorkels to try and find her.
I checked underneath a tree right at the bend of the river and could see her large body tucked up deep underneath.
WE FOUND HER!
Our snake in her hiding spot. To the right of her, you can see her breathing hole. To the left, the river opens up.
It was a shallow area, but she was tucked in tight, so we had to put on scuba tanks to go where she was at.
This snake was hiding in a massive hiding hole she found or created that was behind a tree growing in the water.
It was dark and deep with a small breathing hole, which allowed her to hide indefinitely.
We swam underneath the tree that was half-grown, in and on the river bank. It led to where she was safely tucked away.
It was a tight area, so we took turns, so it would be less intimidating to the snake. A bunch of faces all trying to look at her in here hiding hole might stress her out. We did not want to do that.
I admit it was a bit unnerving swimming in there.
It was dark, and the water was silted up from her moving around in there. You could see her massive body, but you couldn’t see her head.
So we had to wait for her to settle down before we could inch in and see where she was.
She was just laying there, occasionally swimming up to the surface to get a breath of air.
Once she did, she would swim back down and curl up again.
These snakes are so calm and well-behaved. Nothing like we are led to believe.
She was relaxed and never got aggressive with us.
Yes they are predators and yes they are dangerous and must be respected, but interactions like these prove that if done with respect, we can co-exist. They truly are such a polite predator.
She eventually left her cave and swam along the edge of the river searching for one of her spots where she exits the river to slither back into the forest.
We continued to follow her and I am so glad we did, we managed to capture some epic images of this iconic predator…
PART 2 COMING TOMORROW.
The week begins!
This weekend I spent my days doing normal life kind of things. Repairing things, lawn care… Domestic stuff that has nothing to do with the wildlife world.
So I will stop there with the boring unrelated to why you visit this page stories… on to the good stuff.
This week is prep week. I am sorting through last-minute gear prepping for next week’s expedition to Dominica.
Dominica is such a cool island in the Caribbean. There is a freshwater river for every day of the year. At least that is what the islanders boast.
365 rivers and hot streams that pepper the island, which is really cool.
It has waterfalls and lots and lots of forests. It is a beautiful island. A must-visit kind of place.
What is exciting for me and for our friends who are joining us, is the very healthy population of sperm whales that call the waters surrounding the island home.
I am looking forward to a great week of swimming with the whales. Hoping for magic to happen.
There are several pods / families of sperm whales that call Dominica home.
Some are friendlier than others. Most seek out interactions with people. Some don’t and that is ok.
Those whales we leave alone. But the whales that do want to share time with people, those whales are true magic and moments with them is the stuff that dreams are made of.
Either way, it is going to be a great week of good friends, beautiful scenery, and a week of life- in and on the ocean with big animals.
It doesn’t get any better than that!
Have a beautiful week everyone!
I am working on a new reel for our website. Well, it is a highlight reel for our recent grey whale trip. I have been procrastinating putting one together because reels take such a long time to create (at least for me. ) Some people can knock them out in a few hours.
It takes me longer than that.
I also have been pretty quiet on our website lately. I have been sharing daily on our FB and IG pages, but I have not been active on our website.
That is going to change.
I decided to begin sharing daily journals with you guys.
We are not always out in the world looking for animals.
Sadly.
We spend a lot of time at home in between trips.
During this downtime, I am constantly editing and writing, but so much of that content ends up not getting shared.
So I decided I want to share more on our website for those few who are interested in what we have to say and share.
The magic of this life is definitely out in the world looking for wildlife, but the art we create from those adventures happens while we are in the office sitting behind a computer, writing and dreaming about this wildlife world.
So expect more blog posts, because I plan to share a lot more…
Until Tomorrow!
I just finished up our trip report for the first trip of the 2024 season. Grey Whales off Magdalena Bay, Mexico. And man what an epic trip.
I have to be honest, I was a bit nervous that the trip would be a bit of let down, because our 2023 trip was so good. I just could not see how this trip could be any better, or at least just as good.
It far exceeded my expectations and we all had an amazing time on this trip. Baja does not disappoint.
I have attached a link for you all to check out the story for yourselves. I hope you enjoy…
We just returned from our final trip of the 2023 season.
Tigers and Great Hammerheads in the Bahamas.
It was bitter sweet.
It has been a long and year wonderful year.
I am grateful to everyone who has traveled with us. I am grateful to everyone who has followed our journey.
I am thankful that we are able to share so much magic with so many wonderful people.
This job has been a dream and I am filled with gratitude that I get to do this everyday.
Showing people animals and amazing places has become more than a job to me. Yes it is my passion, but I also feel it is my duty.
My responsibility.
My life’s work is to share and show people what is left of our wild places, and the animals that call those places home.
Hopefully these places will remain wild forever. Humans are so greedy for land and for progress that I don’t know if they will.
But as long as I have breath, I will continue sharing and showing our wild places to people to hopefully spark the need to protect what is left.
It’s an uphill battle, but it is worth it. Animals are worth it. The Earth is worth it, and people are worth it.
The world is full of magic my friends… My dream is to help keep it that way.
Going to be sharing a lot of highlights with you all as we near the end of 2023 .
Until the next post, thank you for reading and sharing this journey with me.
Virtually and out in the world… I appreciate you.
Tiger and Great Hammerhead Group Photo. Final one for 2023.
July 24, 2023 - Damn what a day. We started our day with a sad but amazing morning watching the polar bear police and wildlife management tranquilize two bears. A mom and her three year old cub.
They had become problem bears. Sneaking into town at night and going through the garbage.
The polar bear police had set up traps to capture them, but they were not working.
So sadly the bears had to be captured the hard way.
We had just finished breakfast and were out for a stroll when we saw a helicopter in the distance. Underneath the chopper we could see the two bears running for their lives by the train tracks.
We jumped out of the Falcon, our trusty steed, and watched the story unfold safely from the distance. Thankfully we all had long lenses and were able to document this exciting capture. Of course I only had my 100-400mm with me and I definitely needed more lens to document it properly, but I am happy with what I was able to capture.
The helicopter was following the bears, and the bears were running back and forth trying to get away, but they couldn’t. By the time we got there, the bears were exhausted.
The mom and cub. Both are exhausted and stressed from the chase. You can see the dart hanging on the mom’s butt in this shot.
They were using the helicopter to get close to the mother so that they could tranquilize her first. After they shot her, it didn’t take long for her to go down.
The loyal cub stayed by her side the whole time.
Once she was out, the rangers came in and shot the cub up close with a dart, that quickly knocked him out.
I felt bad for the bears. But unfortunately it was necessary. If the bears continued sneaking into town, eventually they would run into someone and an accident could happen and the bears would have to be put down.
So it is best to capture them, lock them up for a week or two, and make the experience as negative as possible, so that when the bears are released they will not want to return to town anymore.
At least in theory they won’t.
The moment, Shantel, the wildlife ranger shot the bear from the helicopter. I got lucky and captured it on my phone.
Once they were sure the bears were knocked out, they brought out a stretcher and hand carried the mom first to the back of a truck that was fitted with special wheels to ride on the rail road tracks.
She was big.
When they got the bears to the compound, they weighed them. The mom weighed in at 600 plus pounds and the cub weighed more than 400.
The ranger rode with the mom bear, keeping an eye on her while they she being transferred.
Once they got the railway truck to a level road they transferred the bears to the back of the ranger’s trucks and off they went to the compound where they will keep them.
The locals call it Polar Bear Jail.
I have been traveling to Churchill for years. You hear about these bear captures, but I had never seen it. It was amazing to watch it all first hand.
I was torn on how to feel about it.
I felt bad for the bears… They do not know they are doing anything wrong. They are just being bears and living in a world that they do not understand.
On the other hand, I also get what the authorities are trying to do. They are trying to keep both people and the bears safe.
So it is a necessary evil.
They don’t want to do this to them. But when you have a town full of people to protect, it has to be done.
We watched the bears get driven off, all of us filled with emotions at what we all just experienced. We silently wished the bears well.
It was a happy/sad moment.
I just hope that the bears will remember this experience and never return to town again.
We just posted a trip report from our 2023 June Mountain Gorilla and Chimpanzee expedition to Uganda. It was an amazing trip with so much magic happening everyday.
It is so hard to put into words, just how special Uganda is. There is so much wildlife here, its mind blowing.
I put up a photo trip report up for you guys. I hope you enjoy!
