Exploring a world without fences…
one story at a time.
It took me long enough, but I finally put together a photo album/trip report for our sperm whale trip. This is for our early May trips. We had some highs and lows on the trip, but overall it was a good trip with really cool people. I am posting the link here for you all to check out.
Hope you enjoy!
I cut together a short video from our first encounter with pilot whales on Dominica Island. It was a very good day and so much fun swimming with and getting to know these predatory mammals. I hope you enjoy.
May 1, 2022 - Day One of Dominica was a good day. We got skunked for sperm whales, but we still had a fantastic day at sea.
We spent quite a few hours searching for sperm whales in the morning. Sadly there were no signs of any whales. No clicks on the hydrophone, no blows in the distance… nada. We did encounter a small pod of pygmy killer whales, but they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.
Finally, our captain saw a few dorsal fins in the distance and motored over. It was a pod of pilot whales swimming slowly along the surface. We quickly got ready and jumped in. The pod was extremely curious and came in close to look at us. I was guessing around ten individuals, turned out it was more… a lot more. We guesstimated around 20 - 25 whales in this group.
We took turns jumping in with them and had an amazing two-hour session with these beautiful whales. This was my first real-time spent with this predatory species, and I was trying to soak them in and learn as much as I could about them.
The pilot whales were swimming very slowly and in no real direction. They were all spread out, just swimming in what seemed like a big wide circle, doing random patterns. I do not know a lot, but what I am guessing and what makes the most sense to me was that they seemed be hunting.
Possibly hunting giant squid below, using sonar to detect when a squid rises from the deep, or maybe they were hunting a deep water whale, like a beaked whale or something. Not sure, but on our final jump of the day, the whales all gathered up close, and then one of them let out a whistle, and they all dove down deep and disappeared. We did not hear the whistle when we were in the water, but I captured the whistle on my gopro and the whales all dove right after. It was awesome.
We didn’t get sperm whales today, but the ocean gave us a unique and wonderful gift for our first day in Dominica. I can’t wait for tomorrow.
In my professional life and my personal life, I continue to evolve and change. A part of it is growing older, but a huge part is because of the adventures we have experienced.
The person I was a year ago is not the person I am today. It can be hard to explain, and sometimes it's hard for the people close to you to understand, I know my loved ones have suffered through the years because of it.
but it's a raw truth.
Adventures change you… the journey of life changes you - Sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad. Things that were important, or seemed important six months ago, may no longer be so today.
The things that remain the same are my love for family and friends and what our company SDM Adventures means to me - passion, adventure, fun, and the beauty of the wild places and animals we love to spend time with.
Many years ago, I wrote a newsletter about how I am evolving and changing through my travels. It was very personal. Looking back, it may have been too personal.
However, the response I got from that newsletter was overwhelming.
Our subscribers responded in one of two ways; Some got angry and unsubscribed - others wanted to experience the kind of changes I was talking about.
I can't help that some of our readers had a negative emotional response to the newsletter. They were just not ready to hear that message.
And that is ok. We are all on different journeys.
But on the flip side, there was also a very positive response from so many of our readers who were pretty excited on the idea of having their lives changed by adventures… there was a lot.
The thing is, change is not what you seek out when you experience life-altering adventures. The change is what happens when you survive them. Life flows, and you flow with it, and when the trip is over and the dust settles, you are just never the same again.
You may think you are the same, but you are not. When you break free from routine and move out of your comfort zone to experience the world's magic, something happens to you deep down inside.
And the more experiences you have, the more visible those changes become. Your energy grows and becomes something you can feel. And if you don't believe me - Try sharing time with someone who has traveled a lot. Talk with them, you can almost feel that energy in the air around them. It is such a cool vibe.
Even as much as we have traveled, some people out there just make you feel like you're standing still in life. And without them even trying to… they inspire you to want more out of your own life.
So get out there my friends!
Go on a journey, take a walk in the woods, sit and watch a hundred sunsets. Experience the natural world and all its perfection, and watch and feel how the world changes you.
You may not be ready for it.
But if you are, then I hope to see you out in the world - let’s trade stories and inspire each other to do more… somewhere… anywhere.
Thank you for reading
Life on Location.
In our last newsletter, I shared with you our new sponsor Cinebags. When I received the box with all my goodies in it, I was excited about everything sent to me. It is always fun getting new gear for your travels.
I can't wait to use it all.
However, what stood out for me was their product Thank You card and the small catalog in the box, promoting all their bags and merchandise. On the cards and catalogs were images of their gear, out in the world, being used by people just like me and you - experiencing life, with the words, Life on Location on it.
Life on Location is the company's motto or tagline. Their motto and their catalog got me so fired up. As I looked at those images and read those words, my mind magically transported me to my next adventure. I felt travel anxiety and wanted to be out there right now.
Receiving that package was an experience. I loved it.
Markus (the owner of Cinebags), left me in awe of not only his product but his storytelling abilities. I was sitting there, with my mind racing about my own storytelling skills, hoping that is what we are able to do when we share experiences with you all.
Jaguar off the Northern Pantanal, Brazil.
Every time I share images or write a trip report or a travel blog, my goal is to hopefully transport you to wherever it is we are. I want you to feel the excitement we feel when we photograph or find the animals we are looking for, helping you long for your own adventures.
I am sure we do not always accomplish this, but I hope that most of what we put out into the world gets you fired up. Of course, sometimes I think I over-share by writing about our bad days - talking about terrible seas or days that the animals do not show up.
Beluga whales in the Churchill River. Churchill, Canada.
That is not good business, I am told.
But to me, if I just shared only the good things from our adventures, my stories wouldn't be stories, they would be fairy tale sales pitches, and that is not me.
We have good days and bad days. That is just life and the reality of looking for wild things. I know our job when we write is to transport you to a magical place, but those far away sites are real, and this is not Disney - they sometimes have crappy weather and hard-to-find animals.
Off the Beaten Path. Searching for anacondas on the Southern Pantanal, Brazil.
That is just part of the job, and what makes each interaction so special.
To find the animals we photograph takes work. They are wild and free, and sometimes nature is not kind.
Leopard shark diving off La Jolla Shores, California.
Night safari off Borneo Malaysia.
For me, it should not be easy, it should be a challenge. So that when you do find them, the emotions you feel are the true reward, and the excitement is just the best.
Of course, when we do find them, those are my favorite stories to write. Journaling my thoughts, and looking at the images we captured at the end of a long exciting day… I am filled with fire as I am writing.
And that fire is what I hope comes out in the writing and images that I share.
Orca diving off Baja, Mexico.
I want to move you so much that you take action in your own life. I want you to create your own memories and write your own stories… all of those perfect and imperfect moments that you will happily carry with you forever.
Thank you for reading.
Crocodile diving off Banco Chinchorro, Mexico.
Image by Markus Davids.
This is our second trip of the 2022 wildlife photography season. We visited Magdalena Bay Mexico for grey whales. This is an extremely special place. The wildlife here is some of the best in the world. During the early winter season we visit Mag Bay to swim with striped marlin and humpback whales. in the month of February we are here to play with friendly grey whales. Here is the photo report from this years trip… I hope you enjoy!
We just posted a new trip report for our first trip of the 2022 wildlife travel season. Mako and blue sharks off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Well I should stop calling it a mako trip, since the makos did not show up this year. We did have some solid blue shark action which was really great. Anyway, here is the link to the trip report, hope you enjoy.
I am playing catch up with trip reports from previous trips. This is from our beluga whale expedition that we ran back in 2018. I know I am late posting it, but it had been on my mind and I always wanted to get it up. The adventure and the experience was so good it was a must share.
Sadly due to Covid we have not been back to Canada since this trip, but thankfully we will finally return to visit this magical place.
Super excited about sharing this very late trip report with you all. We hope you enjoy…
This blog is from my travel journal. The signal in Puerto San Carlos where we visit the grey whales is horrible so I was not able to do much while I was there. But I am back in Texas, playing catch up on blogs and images and emails. I wanted to share moments and memories from our second trip of the season…
February 7, 2022 - Day one of our grey whale expedition. The adventure begins. We are in Puerto San Carlos, with the next four days to be spent seeking out grey whales off Magdalena Bay.
We headed out in two boats; Mari took one boat with the girls and our buddy Jay, I took another boat out with the guys. We split the boats up into two groups to keep our numbers small. I prefer to have only four people in the boats with us so that there is plenty of room to lean over and play with the whales when they approach.
Eva and Lori are new to the wildlife world, but are now very addicted. Welcome to our Normal Ladies.
We left the dock super early and headed out in search of adventure. Damn, I love saying that. San Carlos during this time of year is chilly. It is the winter season, and the mornings are cold. So we were all bundled up as we motored across the Bay. We snapped images of the rising sun as we headed out.
It took us an hour to get to the area where the grey whales hang out. Once we arrived, we enjoyed the sight and sounds of whale blows scattered all around. The sound of a whale coming up for a breath of air is genuinely one of the most incredible sounds you will ever hear in nature. Hearing several blows all around you - there are no words for how epic that is, love that sound!
We hung out with the whales for the rest of the day, patiently waiting for a flirty female to approach our boat. After about thirty minutes, we had whales swim up and begin rolling and rubbing up against our boat. The excitement you see with everyone on the boat, including me, is the best.
I love how fired up everyone gets when a whale approaches. The boys dropped their cameras in, snapping away as the whales came in for a rub. On Mari’s boat, the girls squealed with excitement. Yes, there were a lot of girls screaming on her boat, probably on mine too, BUT, I chose to ignore those sounds to protect the innocent. Lol
We played with the whales for a long time. The whales were swimming from boat to boat, seeking out attention. For some reason, they enjoyed visiting Mari’s boat compared to ours. My guess is the girls were more handsy with the whales than we were. There was more focus on snapping underwater images of them than playing with them on our boat. So I guess the whales got bored and went back to them for more love.
In the afternoon, our Captain spotted many birds near the surface, about two miles away. Signs that there might be a baitball, so he asked us if we wanted to check it out, and off we went. We picked up Jay from Mari’s boat and headed out to the open ocean.
Diving pelicans, picking off sardines from the baitball.
We got closer and ended up motoring into a superpod of common dolphins—tens of thousands of dolphins were in the area hunting sardines. We tried a few jumps with them, but they kept their distance and dropped down deep, too deep for us at least. We could see them, but they were not close enough to try and snap images of them.
So we just enjoyed the topside show they gave us. It was a lot of fun trying to photograph them. Snapping jumping images of dolphins is always a challenge, you get a card full of crappy images. But every once in a while you get lucky and snap a gem.
For scenes like this, video always tells a better story of what we are experiencing. Plus with video, you can capture the sounds that thousands of dolphins make is fire! There are so many dolphins, you can actually hear their underwater whistles while standing on the boat.
After we left the dolphins, we arrived at the baitball, and jumped in to see what what was left of it. It was still a nice-sized baitball of sardines, with about 6 to 7 sea lions hunting them. It was a static ball, and the sea lions were extremely friendly with us and kept coming up to our cameras. The water was green, the visibility was not great and it was freezing cold - but damn was it fun! We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then returned to the Bay to finish up our day with the whales.
Overall it was a fantastic first day in and on the water. We are already looking forward to what tomorrow brings.
Thank you guys for reading.
The glamorous life on the road. We found a place to sleep for a couple of hours at the airport, during our four hour layover.
Travel day, I am home after 24 hours of travel. We took the long way home. We left San Carlos at 6:30AM and drove the 5 1/2 hours to San Jose del Cabo airport to drop off our friends who joined us. After that we sat in the airport and waited for our red-eye flight back to Texas. We landed in Mexico City at 1am, our next flight was at 5am. We didn’t get home until 8AM the next morning.
Crappy flight schedule.
So worth it though… This has been one hell of a Baja adventure. Sadly I broke my word to myself and did not journal every night after getting back to the hotel room. The days out on the water off Mag Bay are long. Really long, and you are just beat when you get back from the sea.
The internet signal is also bad out in Mag Bay, so sharing blogs and vlogs was not an option. But the good part is I have a long-ish break in between these trips, and my next ones, so I will be sharing clips and stories from this adventure over the next few weeks.
and there will be some good ones…
Magdalena Bay did not disappoint. We had a fantastic adventure with great people - Baja and the wildlife here is first-class. This was one of the best experiences we have ever had at Mag Bay and I can’t wait to share.
The grey whales were friendlier than ever and gave us all so many unique opportunities to capture images and videos of them. We even had some great encounters with a three-week-old baby.
The baby was a bit shy, but its mom encouraged it to come in close, teaching it to swim and play around the boats. What is remarkable is this behavior only happens when the whales are in these Bays.
When the whales are out in the open ocean, they return to being shy and untrusting and do not like to be close to the boats. But in the Bay, some whales truly love interacting with people… they are such amazing animals.
And when you think about it, humans once visited these Bays to hunt the whales for their oil. As a result, we nearly brought these beautiful animals to the brink of extinction due to human greed. Sadly the Makah tribe off Washington is still trying to kill grey whales as part of their ancestral rights. Hoping that tradition comes to an end.
Anyway, I will share more blogs with you all this week, and trips, and newsletters and updates on next season's trip.
Until then, my friends, stay tuned and thank you for reading.
