Capturing the Moment

As I sit up here in this winter wonderland, ringing in the new year I can't help but be amazed at where this past year has taken me. Exactly a year ago I was exploring and surfing my way through Puerto Rico, snorkeling in Bioluminescent Bay, exploring the Spanish Virgin Islands, surfing the winter swells, and scuba diving. I flew back to Savannah just in time for my good friend Ed's wedding. After a quick stop in L.A. to visit Heidi and the Tole Mour I landed in Texas to the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a 35.5ft sailboat that I spent a month fixing up with the owner and then nearly capsized in halfway to Mexico in the middle of a big Northerner in the Gulf of Mexico. Limping back into southern Texas we fixed her back up, and with the help Heidi and Ryan we succeeded in sailing to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. There I jumped on another boat, this time a 44ft Lancer and sailed this one to Roatan, Honduras, San Andres, Columbia, and finally Bocas Del Toro, Panama. Both of these trips were inc...

It is like Kruger didnt want me to go. My last morning in the park was one incredible sighting after another. I guess all the animals had the short period between dawn and sunrise to move around because of the intense heat of the day lately. This morning I had a lot on my mind, will the car rental give me a break on the extra kilometers, will my mom's plane ticket work out, where can I clean up the car, will I make it in time to see my mom at the airport before her flight... Well things have a way of working out. Waking up at 430am I figured I had time to do everything. I headed out under the cover of darkness, which was perfect for finding hyenas moving around the road just outside of camp. I paused and thought about stopping when a little baby hyenas popped out of the den. I was ecstatic. I had been wanting to see baby predators this whole 100 day trip...and here they were on the very last day. I took some pictures and another baby emerged...and then another. Three baby hyenas. N...

Well it’s my third time in Kruger National Park here in South Africa this month. I was here with Heidi for 3 days, my mom for 4 days and now I am back by myself for 4 days to wrap up my 100 day 2010 safari in Africa. I was hoping that the old saying, ‘third time is a charm’ would come into effect for me. Right off the bat it looked like it was going to be a lucky wildlife experience. I caught a glimpse of a rare sable antelope thru the trees. He stood staring at me, not sure whether to run or to keep on acting naturally. We faced-off for a fleeting minute before another car drove up breaking the fragile peace and sent the sable rushing deeper into the forest. Not only are they very endangered, but their timidness and choice of dense habitat makes the sable a rare find. It was extra special for me having grown up with sable out on St Catherines Island, which the Bronx Zoo used as an off site breeding program for rare and endangered animals. I have found that most of the animals on that ...

Day 1: After a long drive from Golden Gate Nat’l Park in the Drakensburg Mntns we arrive at the southwestern located gate of Melalane and entered Kruger National Park in time for an afternoon game drive. We spotted impala and two warthogs with 9 babies all pushing to get their share of milk. Then we came upon a pack of wild dogs, one of the rarest predators in Africa. They were lazing about in the afternoon sun, occasionally looking up and twitching their big Mickey Mouse ears. We moved on when we heard there was a leopard hanging out in a tree a few kilometers away. He was far off the road but still quite beautiful to see. Four big white rhinos were next. They were investigating each other and one even gave another a pretty powerful hit with his horns. Then the birds started to come out; beautiful blue and purple colored rollers, big birds of prey like the marshal eagle, two African green pigeons, and a wattled plover, which I hadn’t seen before. A tiny dwarf mongoose ran up an old lo...