One of the greatest pleasures in traveling aboard Lindblad expeditions vessels is the opportunity to observe, consider and contrast the many wonders our planet offers, from one pole to the other. Such an observation may be something familiar, seen in a new light or in an unusual context, making it fresh and exciting once again. Perhaps it is an echo of a distant place emerging clear and strong from new surroundings. Or an old idea suddenly brought to clarity in confronting its antithesis.
Wildlife encounters, of course, very frequently offer this kind of experience. All of us understand the thrill of seeing a beautiful species of bird or flower for the first time. And, equally, the very different experience of finding a familiar animal in a new and unexpected place. It is always a delight to see humpback whales, anywhere in the world, but perhaps the pleasure is greater in each new ocean where we find them; Alaska, Antarctica, Baja, Svalbard, their homes are our destinations and we greet them like old friends.
I photographed this beautiful nudibranch, a type of sea slug, at a depth of 103 feet in Right Whale Bay at South Georgia. Certainly it was thrilling enough to find such an exquisitely delicate creature in the icy cold seas around this Antarctic island, but it meant all the more for the memories it evoked of nearly identical species I have encountered and shared with our guests in northern Scotland, the Chilean fiords, the Sea of Cortez and Alaska’s inside passage. It was a lovely reminder of the unity of our world, the lines of life and thought which interconnect all of us and the places we love.
