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Echo Camp, Antarctica

We first visited Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Endurance in late 2022 and loved the raw beauty of the snow-covered wilderness, with fantastically-shaped icebergs and rugged mountains soaring upwards from land and sea. The wildlife was exceptional as well, but it was the scenery that really drew us in. We knew we’d be back, but…

Kruger National Park

World-famous Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves on the African continent, encompassing nearly 4.9 million acres (2 million ha). The park also is home to among the widest diversity of large mammals in the world, including the lion, leopard, cheetah, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, antelope, and wildebeest. We very…

Doha, Qatar

Doha, the capitol of oil-rich Qatar, is a fast-growing and dynamic city with a spectacular, constantly-evolving skyline. The Qatari government, in an effort to diversify the economy away from oil and gas sector and encourage tourism and business investments, is investing heavily in world-class infrastructure and modernization. The country has burst onto the world stage…

On Board the Aqua Nera

Launched in 2020, the Aqua Nera is the newest by a decade of the roughly half-dozen commercial river boats that cruise the Peruvian Amazon River. The ship is operated by Aqua Expeditions, who have branched out from their beginnings on the Amazon River to operate small-boat cruises in the Galapagos, Indonesia, and the Mekong River….

Death of an Impala

While on a recent safari at Lion Sands Ivory Lodge in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa, we watched an African rock python swallow an impala. The opportunity to watch a python swallow its prey is rare and ours was even more so, in that the typical prey for the python is much smaller animals…

Spitfire the Wonder Cat

This morning Spitfire the Wonder Cat died on route to the vet. He’s been working through kidney problems for five years and heart problems for eight months but neither slowed him down much. He lived for 20 years, 5 months, 28 days and his personality never faltered. He always had lots to say, loved following…

2023 Summary

In addition to more adventuring in the Pacific Northwest, this year we continued the “filling in the gaps” tour and visited several places that we either didn’t get to, or couldn’t reach, on our around-the world trip on Dirona. And we’re happy to report that Spitfire the wonder cat reached his 20th birthday this year,…

November in Seattle

November brought winter weather to Seattle, with heavy rainfall and temperatures that brushed around freezing. We escaped the cold weather, but not the rain, on an Amazon River cruise later in the month. Temperatures there were in the high 90s F (32 C), with the sporadic downpours typical of the tropics. Preparing for the trip…

Amazon River Cruise

The Amazon River is the largest river in the world by discharge volume and second longest in the world (after the Nile). Originating in Peru, the Amazon flows 4,000 miles (6,400 km) eastward drain into to the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil. The river has two seasons, high water and low water, with a 35-45-ft (10.6-13.8m)…

The Boys in the Boat

The #1 New York Times-bestselling The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown chronicles the true story of Joe Rantz and his working-class teammates on the University of Washington rowing crew who, against all odds, competed for the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The book was recently made into a movie…