Miller Genuine Draft

There is one thing that reminds me, that I'm back in Bristol bay, above anything else. More than the smell of fish, the smell of the ocean, walking around the town of Naknek, and even more than the crazy bar fights and wild grizzly looking fisherman,in the smokey Red Dog Saloon.

It's a taste that goes along with every day I'm out here. Starts before the season, with long days working on the boat, working on the engine, changing the oil,checking the hydraulic fluid, loading the nets, painting the deck, the rusty metals, getting it ready for fishing. It's a taste that goes along with the long journey from the Naknek River, past all the canneries, then out to sea, past Johnson's Hill, down the Alaska Peninsula, to where we fish for salmon.

The taste that goes along with every completion to a day of fishing, my rain gear covered in fish scales and blood, my arms and shoulders sore. The way to delivering our catch, after we anchor up, wash down the boat, and finally after we get out of our rain gear and get to finally relax in a warm cabin.

The taste is great on stormy rough seas, rainy cold showers, but tastes the best on sunny warm days or Bright orange sunsets. There is nothing better than the taste of a Miller Genuine Draft,after a long grueling day, commercial fishing in the Bering Sea.

It's a taste I only enjoy for two months of the year, since our captains only drink "MGD". The crew on the world famous crab boat Time Bandit, made famous in the deadliest catch. Calls our captains the "MGD brothers". For the rest of my life, Miller Time, will forever make me think of "fishing time, out in Bristol Bay, in the Bering Sea of Alaska.

Summer Means It's Time To Head Out Commercial Fishing!

I hadn't yet unpacked my stuff from my Africa trip, before I started packing for commercial fishing season. Switching out warmer weather clothing like shorts, flip flops, t-shirts, and light safari pants, and replacing them with heavy duty rain gear, "xtra tuf" rain boots, thick warm socks, and sweat shirts.

I'll also lose my African tan, grow out a thick rugged beard, making me look more like my Scandinavian ancestors. My soft photographer hands will transform into strong, callused, salmon picking machines. My shoulders will strain from pulling in nets loaded with thousands of pounds of salmon, and my mind and body will toughen with every storm we crash through, and exhausting 24 hour work days.

Commercial fishing in Bristol Bay is only 6 weeks long, so when the fish are running you are always working. You just suck it up and work hard, hopefully being rewarded with a big pay day at the end of the season. For me a good pay day means I get to afford to travel again and photograph some new location in the world.

Commercial fishing is a way of life to a lot of Alaskans. Alaska is home to the largest salmon runs in the world. Each year millions of salmon return to spawn in Alaskan rivers. Bristol Bay is the biggest, with rivers like Egegik, Naknek, and Kvichak which each have had runs of 29 plus million fish returning.

Last year was an exciting year on the boat. It was rough and stormy all year, we had to work long grueling hours, and my deck hand, got his arm ripped open from a 6 foot salmon shark, that got stuck in our net. It didn't take long for rumors to pass through the fishing fleet, so within the day people were calling us on radio, asking "Hattrick Over" " This is Hattrick" "I heard one of your deck hands had his arm ripped off by a shark, I'm sorry."
After getting his arm ripped open and having to fly to get his arm stitched up, we had his rain jacket decorated for him with a drawing of a shark.


What's great about fishing in Alaska is, you will never know what to expect. Every year is different. After a wild and adventurous 7 months, traveling across the entire continent of Africa, I only hope fishing season is just as exciting. Though, out on the boat in Alaska, there are few less worries that I had to worry about in Africa, such as not getting Malaria, there are no snakes or scorpions on the boat, and no chance of coming across crazy Nigerians, illegally logging, then holding a machete up to my neck and demanding my camera.

After the season, I will be flown back into Katmai National Park, where I will go backpacking alone, for a week to document the amazing volcanic eruption that transformed the landscape.

Also home to one of the largest concentrations of brown bears in the world, I will hopefully get some up-close photos of these amazing animals, as they chow down on salmon, trying to fatten up before winter.

I was recently eating at a Chinese restaurant and I opened my fortune cookie and it read, " you will have a close encounter of a serious kind." We will just have to wait and see what kind of encounter I will have.

Posting photos!

For the past 10 days, I have been going through my photos from my trip. Memory card after memory card, up late then up early, filtering the good photos from the bad.

When I find a photo I like, I crop, saturate, and then upload on to my website. I try to keep my photos as authentic as the scene I captured. Anyone who is a photographer knows how time consuming it is editing thousands of photos.

But I'm nearly done and looking forward to having a life again. Please take a look at my website my clicking at my Brian Montalbo Photography banner above. Those who have been following my blog, can see photos that go along with the posts from my blog.

Eventually I'll add photos from my trip into the stories I posted on here. I would like to thank everyone who followed my adventures and gave me feed back and comments. It was an exhausting trip with many ups and downs, but knowing that people were reading my blog kept me motivated to document a place that is unique in the world.

The last seven months took me from the glaciers of Iceland through the jungles of western Africa, down to the southern most point in Africa. I got arrested in Mali, held up by machete gorilla trekking in Nigeria, managed to avoid getting malaria, I dodged the many poisonous snakes and spiders, and most of all, got my cameras and memory sticks back home, in one piece.

If I motivated you in anyway to go out and live life to the fullest, plan a vacation yourself, or realize that life is about the memories and experiences you make, and not the materialistic junk that we tend to accumulate, than I did my job. There is a huge world out there, changing faster than you can ever imagine. Go out there and soak it up before you find yourself regretting that you never followed your heart.

Netherlands

The country of Netherlands is worth visiting, and for far more reasons than just to party in the liberal city of Amsterdam, where most enjoy space cakes, the red light district, sex shows, Ann Frank Museum, Van Gogh Museum, and beautiful canals.

Try heading out into the country side and explore a small country who's locals enjoy a high quality of life, use an amazing network of windmills and dikes to hold back a rising sea, and allow them to maximize the little land that they have.

So go out and have a few nights of wild partying in the most famous side of the Netherlands, it's why you come to the Netherlands, but don't forget to head out into country side to experience a slower pace, and learn about the culture and lifestyle that has shaped the country's history.

Try on some wooden clogs, taste some great cheese, head to Keukenhof to see the tulips, if you are there in April and May, stand and stare at the photogenic windmills, and take a boat ride to the fishing village of Volendam, across the largest lake in western Europe.

It's easy to jump on trains and buses and travel within the country. Or just walk around in Amsterdam and buy a ticket from the tour operators that will take you to all of them in one day.

Visit Netherlands album on my website. http://bmontalbo.zenfolio.com/p29476172

Vaanse Schans Windmill village

Volendam Village







Keukenhof Tulips

Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa

Addo Elephant National Park is a great place to see elephants, elephants, and more elephants. And lots of elephant poo.   But don't think that is all it has to offer. Addo is unique, in that it is also home to the big seven. The famous big five, the elephant, cape buffalo, black rhino, leopard, lion, but also includes the less viewed whale, and great white shark.

Most tourists find themselves driving around the park along such loops as Gorah loop, that take you through huge herds of elephants, grazing on open grassy fields, that resemble a scene from the movie Jurassic Park.  It's great for photography and allows you to get a great view of the surrounding park.

In other parks,  safari guides try to keep their distance from a huge herd of elephants with young.  In Addo, you just move right through them.   The elephants seem to know their role.

But don't worry,  if too many elephants would seem to get dull after a while,  their is plenty of other animals and bugs to keep you entertained.   Keep your eye out for  kudu, eland, buchells zebra, and Red hartebeest.    It was the only place in Africa I have seen a bat eared fox,  and it was always entertaining watching the many flightless dung beetles, pushing their huge ball of elephant dung backwards.

Great White Cage Diving, South Africa

There are animals in this world that are just so amazing to view in the wild, that their extinction would fail future generations, who would miss out on experiencing them. Just how past generations have failed us, by not protecting areas for our generation.

Sadly, there will come a day when "wild animals" is a word describing a past era, for most of the world. A time in our history, when there was open land free from development, where animals could roam without fences.

For most, it's hard to picture Africa with no wild lions, but the reality is, they say in twenty years, they will be extinct in the wild as well.

The great white shark, is one of these animals, that I hope everyone gets to experience in their lifetime. Their size, strength, and power, is impressive, but it's just the idea of knowing such a massive shark still exists from the era of dinosaurs, that inspires our imagination.

While I don't agree with the way they attract them, using chum, and wrestling against the side of the boat, like cowboys, I still believe that just viewing them will touch everyone in a positive way. And that is the most important way to make sure they stay around.

Since great whites, are one of those animals that can't be tamed, has yet to survive in captivity, and havn't been trained, their future is as dim as the stars over a major cities night sky, and rely on us not betraying them.

An ocean without great white sharks, is like the sky without birds. A symbol of the wild would be gone. Sharks are a keystone species, meaning they are used to measure the health of an ecosystem. They keep the oceans strong by eliminating the weak.

Click this link to see amazing photos of a great white breaching

Young smaller great white going after bait.

Click this link to see amazing photos of a great white breaching

Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique

North of Tofo, is the tiny town of Vilanculos, and gateway to Bazaruto Archipelago, which is a series of sandy protected Islands, with excellent diving and snorkling, and very expensive lodges.

While the town of Vilanculos, isn't that interesting , the islands and waters are breath taking. Lodges are popping up along the coast, so in the near future the town will probablly grow, but for now it's a great balance of accomodation with open space.

Before heading out on the boat, I managed to catch the first kiss on live broadcast, of the royal wedding at smugglers Sport Bar. They say an estimated 2 billion people watched the broadcast. It was sure good I had some beers to drink.

The nest morning after waking up, I headed out on my own honeymoon and jumped on a boat that was taking me to the Bazaruto Archipelago. I travelled by dhow, which was a slow process, but we were on Africa time, there is no hurry.

With the sun in my face and a cold beer in my hand, I hung my feet over the side and glanced out aross the turqiouse waters of the Indian Ocean. Fishermen were hauling in nets from the shallows sea, between the island and the mainland. The first Island we stopped to snorkle at was, Margauque Island.







The incoming tide made a river like current along a reef, so you just jumped in and let the current take you along. You have to watch not to cut your feet on the sharpe coral and rocks.

Best thing about organized tours is they have lunch waiting for you when you get out the water. The beach we had lunch on was so white it looked as if it was bleached. After a few free hours to walk the island owned by a Zimbabwe arms dealer, we headed back across the channel to sleep for the night in cozy permanent tents, on our own stretch of coast with noone within sight.

On the way there, I was lucky enough to spot one of the rare dugongs for a second before it dove down again. An estimated 70 live in the area, which is the largest number anywhere in the world.


The next morning we woke up to the beautiful sunrise, packed up our stuff and headed out to our boat, which was now anchored a few hundred yards out in low tide. Wading our way to the boat with bags over our head, we made our way to two mile reef, which is a beautiful place to snorkle.

I snorkled over the biggest clusters of coral I have ever seen, the sea looked like an aquirium. After a few hours of snorkling, the captain took us to the near by sand dune, where if you climbed it gave you and amazing 360 degree panorama of the archipelago.

Once again lunch was waiting for us when we walked back down.
With a full belly we make our way back to Vilanculos. When the days get short and cold up in Alaska, I'll def look at my photos I took of the islands and the amazing Indian ocean waters.