Finally back in Cape Town, if only for a few days before heading off to Gansbaai for a film shoot with the great whites. After an absence of seeing them for nearly two months it was great to see the sharks again as we worked around Dyer Island as well as close to shore. Unquestionably the highlight of the shoot was one particular evening when a beautiful sunset lit up the Overberg sky and coupled with glassy flat waters created a beautiful, mercury like water surface that was cleaved open by the dorsal fin of great white as it circled our vessel. It was just such a beautiful idyllic scene and one that more people need to see to appreciate the gentle side of the great white shark. After wrapping up this shoot it was back to Cape Town and then onto a few pelagic trips off Cape Point. Greeting us 20 miles offshore was blue blue open ocean water, shoals of Yellowfin Tuna and a couple of blue sharks. One of these blue sharks was roughly 7 feet long and I spent 2 hours with this shark swimming around me occasionally nudging me or my camera and being escorted by its’ little black and white pilot fish companion.

Almost immediately after arriving back from Brazil we headed to one of our favorite locations on earth, Namibia. A land with endless horizons, few people and landscapes that take your breath away.

By the middle of September each year we are ready for a break as over 180 trips to sea in a 5 month period certainly tires you out. One of my dreams in life was to see a jaguar and go to South America, I don’t think I am alone in this wish.

For most of July sightings were solid with 7-10 sharks per day averaging 3.4m in length. What happened in the 3rd week of July was startling. After days of building numbers of sharks it was obvious that a period of intense predation was imminent. Two days before we started our premier Predation Specialty Expedition with a small group of 8 guests the hunting began.

The Great White Sharks at Seal Island were still surprisingly slow at the start of June but held promise as there were a few indictors that things would change. The weather however was anything but slow. A massive system roared towards the South Western Tip of Africa sending mountains of approaching water with it in the form of 30-40ft high waves.

With the onset of our Autumn the great white sharks were back at Seal Island and sightings were regular as was the opportunity for shark photography, but rather than increasing began to tail off towards mid-May, whilst at the same time Gansbaai saw unprecedented numbers of sharks. This was a worrying time for us and although we still saw sharks on all trips sightings were not as good as expected.

Friends of our Jonathan Rossouw and his partner G invited us on a very special expedition to see an animal that it is estimated less than 200 westerners have ever seen alive. We were off on our quest to see a Snow Leopard, the Grey ghost of the Himalayas. At 4000+m and at temperatures of -30c or more this was something I was not used to. Whilst Monique thrived in these conditions I was hospitalized with Altitude sickness.

The start of 2011 did not bode well for a good year. Incredible gale force winds buffeted Cape Town for week after week keeping us ashore and cancelling a lot of trips and opportunities for great white shark photography. When we did get to sea we found icy cold, nutrient rich, upwelled water which was great for fish but dirty to dive in and not great for shark pictures.

A near perfect weekend followed an almost perfect spell of unusually calm and settled beach-going weather that prevailed throughout the week. With 10 birders on board and Chris Fallows at the helm with Poenas in assistance we set off from Simon’s Town on ‘White Pointer’ for the trawling grounds south west of Cape Point.

The weather report promised great conditions off Cape Point so we were really excited to head off on one of Apex's pelagic diving trips into the marine-life rich Agulhas Current yesterday. The water was 17C at Cape Point and at about 25 miles offshore we hit blue 22C water, the best we have had in a long time!