Getting to San Juan Island We caught an Uber to Renton Airport, at the south end of Lake Washington. I’d never even heard of it before, but there were planes everywhere—none of which I recognised. It turns out they were Boeing planes, still waiting for their airline branding. It was pretty cool to see them […]
Getting to Sikta The flight to Sitka was stunningly beautiful. We flew over countless small islands, each with just a home or two and a dock. Exiting the plane was a bit unusual because there were about 20 state troopers waiting. Apparently, Sitka is a training facility, and there were 50 new recruits on our […]
Seventeen Years of Dreaming of Returning to Brooks Lodge Brooks Lodge is pure magic—our first visit was back in 2007. It was such an amazing trip that it earned a spot on our website home page. Deep down, we knew we’d be back eventually. Fast forward 15 years to December 1, 2022. I stumbled upon […]
No Rest in the Wild Our morning began at Danko Island, where we were greeted by light, fluffy snow and a gentle breeze. From the ship, we could see the Gentoo penguin colony perched atop a snow-covered mountain covered in a labyrinth of penguin highways. Andy originally planned to skip this landing and stay on […]
Hiking to an Adelie Penguin Colony In the afternoon, we traveled to the Yalour Islands, renowned for their Adelie penguin colonies. After a brief hike from the landing site to a nearby plateau, we observed numerous colonies. Each rocky patch appeared to host its own penguin neighborhood. We watched the penguins as they moved between […]
We woke up anchored at the southern end of the Argentine Islands, greeted by the sight of six humpback whales feeding as we enjoyed breakfast—a magical start to the day (even if we didn’t have our cameras with us!). A long zodiac ride brought us ashore, accompanied by a playful escort of cormorants (or shags, […]
This post is part of our epic adventure to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. In case you don’t want to read this sequentially, or you are looking for a specific part of the trip, here are some shortcuts: Introduction Departure Day Santiago, Chile Torres del Paine, Chile El Calafate, Argentina Ushuaia, Argentina Embarkation Day […]
Long story short, we were planning to be in Lady Elliot in August. A week before we were due to depart, Covid cases in New South Wales skyrocketed (to 10 new cases per day), and Queensland closed their border. So in true 2020 spirit, we had to scrap everything and plan something new in our […]
After skipping 2018 due to scheduling challenges, we returned to Tonga for the third time in August of 2019. Getting There Based on trips in 2016 and 2017, we know that Tonga isn’t easy to reach. In 2016 we flew Melbourne to Auckland to Tonga, then overnighted in this horrible hotel, and then […]
Our trip to Tonga in 2016 put us in a serious post vacation funk. We were keen to go back, but organised tours are expensive, the dates aren’t flexible, and we’ve learned that the LAST thing we want is to be in the water with a bunch of other photographers. It is a remote part […]