Ladies and gentlemen, I’m back — and this one is a proper trip report from our Sardine Run 2025 expedition off South Africa’s Wild Coast. I’ve been flat-out teaching back-to-back technical diver classes (students come first, because they pay the bills and YouTube does not), but I owed the channel and the crew a recap of what was, frankly, another front-row seat to an oceanographic wildlife documentary. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to drop into “Blue Planet” in real life… this is it. Now, full disclosure: United Airlines stranded me in Newark for 24 hours and still managed to send my checked bag to Johannesburg without my underwater camera housing. So for the first three days, I couldn’t shoot the way I normally would — everything you see in the opening and outro sequences was filmed in the last three days of the trip. And yes, it still absolutely delivered: hundreds of humpback whales, thousands of common and bottlenose dolphins, and plenty of bronze whaler and silky sharks. We also changed things up with a new lodge (Cremon Estate — great food, friendly staff, and a cracking vibe by the fireplace). Weather was mild for a South African winter, and although it’s called the sardine run, this year was honestly more like the “mackerel run,” with many of our bait balls being mackerel. We’ll be back in 2027 — get on the email list if you want first pick of spaces.