Came across this fellow while diving in the East End. I believe he must be a blacktip reef shark as that’s what we have in Cayman, and his profile fits the bill, but he doesn’t have an obvious tip!
He was accompanied by several Sharksucker fish (which I’ve learned are different to Remora), as you can see on his underbelly. He swam with me for a while, but I struggled to keep up, finning frantically after him, while he kept ahead with lazy flicks of his tail – although that’s a pretty large tail fin! A great experience to be close to raw nature. Read more…
We have our Blue and Green Iguanas in Cayman so it was fun to spot two more species of Iguana on our trip to the Galapagos Islands. Read more…
One of the nice things about safari is how the animals just learn to ignore the vehicles. This Lioness was completely focused on her daily hunt, totally ignoring our presence. Read more…
I’ve been meaning to write something like this for a little while, to “celebrate” hitting 50 blog posts, which I did in April, but things got a little busy at work.
April was quite a “successful” month so far as this blog’s modest stats goes, receiving almost as many views, visits and likes as each of the last three years did. It was also the first time I flagged to my wife, with a little trepidation, that I had started updating the blog this year. Perhaps that justifies a little self-indulgent introspection. Perhaps not, but I’ll indulge anyway… Read more…
The Ngorogoro Crater, a conservation area and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania, which keeps safari animals captive in a huge natural conservation zone. It’s amazingly natural and safe from hunters, the only prey being the natural predators. We were not “lucky” enough to see a kill while on safari, but came across this Hyena enjoying a bit of fast food… Read more…
This baboon is looking a bit smug, although he’s not quite worked out how to properly drink apple juice. I heard recently that chimpanzees have entered the “stone age”, able to work out how to use tools. It’ll be a while before they’re in to the “polyethylene age”.
There’s a bit of a story behind this picture. Read more…
…yes, not a spelling mistake, but they probably do weigh a couple of tonne! Pretty decent horn on that fellow too. Read more…
I went for the regular monthly cull with Ocean Frontiers, a three tank, nitrox dive. My usual buddy had cried off with a hangover for too much corporate golf the afternoon before so I was a bit nervous about whether there would be reliable buddies on board. Read more…
Leopards are my favourite of the Safari animals, although surprisingly common around the world because they adapt and hunt in different environments, they are usually very elusive. Except for this fellow who just wandered out and past our truck in the broad light of day, bold as brass. Read more…
I lived in London for more than a dozen years and really enjoyed the place, but I’m really not a city boy. London is a great place, more an organic sprawl of conjoined towns and villages than a metropolis. Cayman certainly doesn’t boast a metropolis, but is famous for one city – “Stingray City”. At a sand bar in the North Sound (a stretch of water enclosed by the Island on three sides and the reef on the fourth) you can stand in waist deep water, surrounded by Stingrays. Fisherman gutted their catch there for years, attracting stingrays which now gather to be fed squid by the tourists. It’s a surreal experience, but an amazing one. Read more…
Tubbyman Tales 