The sun has just arisen behind us to the east, lighting up the steep, reddish cliffs of Isla Guadalupe, which rise up out of a flat-calm, crystalline-clear sea, its surface splattered in the orange and red Monet-pastels of early morning’s light. We are anchored just off the island’s long, leeward shoreline, the prevailing winds and swell fully-blocked for as far as we can see in either direction. Located 150 nautical miles off the coast of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, we are experiencing an utterly calm, pristine scene, with an other-worldly sense of peace, of unimaginable tranquility. The only movements detectible are […]

Recently, I visited the Okavango Delta of Botswana, Africa, a huge area, some 6-15,000 sq km, formed by the Okavango River. The result, especially in the dry winter months, is the formation of one of the world’s most remarkable wildlife gathering places, a vast pool of abundance in the midst of arid, scrub lands with little of sustenance to offer, a haven for aquatic life and migrating grazing animals – plus the carnivores that feed upon them.

For our project, however, we left the delta’s edges where the herds gather, taking boats deep into the aquatic interior on the river’s channels, tributaries and lagoons. We operated from a simple tent-campsite on a tiny island, and each day travelled by boat for 7-8 hours, searching.

But, although we did see birds, hippos and elephants (those certainly were thrilling enough), they weren’t really what we were after….for we were looking for Nile Crocodiles to photograph. And, as I seem to have neglected to mention, this was a dive trip.