Capturing the Moment

  Here we are at the end of another incredible year. It has been filled with big travels, adventures, guiding, meet ups with family in foreign countries, and cool wildlife encounters above and below the water. Click through the different links for a look back at different posts and highlights from all the adventures. All the best pictures can be found at www.daimartamarack.com .    The year started out for me running exclusive guiding trips aboard the Safari Explorer in the Hawaiian Islands. The second half of January provided some ample off time for an incredible scuba diving trip to Indonesia with Heidi. We spent some quality time muck diving around the shipwreck of the UST Liberty in Tulamben on the island of Bali and out on Nusa Lembongan , a small island just off the coast. I was overjoyed to be joined by Ed and Jamie all the way from Savannah. Then Heidi and I flew a couple of islands east to catch a liveaboard dive boat called 'Amalia' for a weeklong underwat...

Pattern of a Cape Giraffe   It is spring time here in Kruger National Park in South Africa which means it's a busy time, for both animals and tourists. However with all the back roads and sheer size of the park you can stay and watch an animal for a while without seeing anyone else. However, when you do see a few cars stopped along the road up ahead of you there is a good chance that there may be something special lurking close by. Sheer power of a young male lion It is their road first and foremost    Even though you have to stay in your car for obvious safety reasons, and you have to stay on the roads (it is more strict here than Kenya), there are so many animals here in Kruger that close encounters still happen naturally. Take a look at these close encounters that happened in one 24hr period spent in the park a few days ago. Smallest baby ever Rough skin of an African elephant   We had a pride of lions pop out of the river valley a few fe...

 The Pull of Africa Back for the animal encounters    After three '100 day' self driving safaris across 10 countries in Africa over the past 10 years I still havn't seen enough of this beautiful continent. I have taught baseball in Kenya, slept under a baobab tree in Tanzania, hiked with the gorillas in Uganda, and fell through a tree in Zambia. I've surfed at Jeffrey's Bay , scuba dove off Zanzibar Island , listened to lions roar outside my tent at night, and watched the sunrise from the summit of Kilimanjaro . Yet I still havn't seen enough of this continent.   So I'm back. This time I have nearly six weeks to spend which means big decisions to be made. I was lucky enough that my girlfriend Heidi also managed to get this time off which makes the decision a little easier because now it must include diving for nudibranchs! Always looking for a good camping spot    To narrow things down we first decided to focus on Southern Africa instead of ...

 Relaxing on vacation after a solid summer season working as Expedition Leader with UnCruise gave me time to reflect a little bit on the amazing summer in Alaska's Inside Passage. I thought what better way to reflect back than to flip through my pictures and remember all the amazing sights and adventures that happened.