Highlights from 2025: an extraordinary year
- Jomi Krobb
- Jan 21
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 27
Now that the new year is well underway, Hadley and I have taken some time to reflect on 2025, which turned out to be an extraordinary year for us both personally and professionally.
I started 2025 the way I had started the previous few years: guiding guests aboard a Quark Expeditions ship down in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Hadley had joined me on board for a week, which was a blast and included a polar plunge and sightings of various seals, many humpback whales, gentoo, Adelie, and chinstrap penguins. Her last evening aboard we had a pod of 15+ orcas cruising beside the ship as the sun began it’s slow dip towards the horizon (never fully setting at that time of year).
Some of Hadley's Antarctic highlights: Polar plunging, icebergs, Adelie penguins & a sleeping Weddell seal
Antarctica: After Hadley’s departure, I set off on a two and half week trip that included the marine wildlife metropolis of South Georgia as well as visits to the eastern side of the Antarctic peninsula. South Georgia’s weather was -as it so often is- unfavourable for some of our excursions with exceptionally high wind speeds; despite that, we managed to land at Grytviken and Salisbury Plain where we saw the expansive king penguin colony with lots of southern elephant seals present. The Weddell Sea proved even more fruitful: at the edge of the pack ice we encountered a number of young emperor penguins and then a particular highlight was spending about an hour or so with a pod of orcas while out cruising on the the zodiacs. The close proximity and playful nature of the orcas made for an incredibly memorable encounter that I will cherish for years.
Singapore & Borneo: In April, Hadley and I had the opportunity to explore a completely new region, combining a visit to my sister in Singapore with a truly eye-opening 10-day trip to Borneo. Singapore deserves a mention here; the small island city-state places enormous emphasis on staying as green as possible and the wildlife here makes it worth a visit alone. We saw urban otters, salt water crocodiles, an epic battle between two water monitor lizards and went on several birding excursions with a local specialist guide, clocking up a formidable list. Each morning we would visit a different neighborhood, learning its history and then enjoying regional cuisine at the hawker centers.
More Singapore highlights
Borneo: Borneo is an exceptional wildlife destination. It’s the third largest island in the world and our focus was on three areas in Sabah (the northern Malaysian part of Borneo), which are known for their wildlife.
Deramakot, Borneo: We began in Deramakot, a small sustainably logged forest reserve where we saw 20 different mammal species in the first two days. Most of the mammals are nocturnal, arboreal, and have some flying or gliding capability. The diversity of squirrels, primates, civets and civet-like creatures was just epic and, though we missed out on seeing the highly sought after clouded leopard (this is the place to see them), we did come away with a great leopard cat sighting and several Bornean pygmy elephant sightings.
Impressions from Deramakot: Sunda colugo, black-eared barbet, leopard cat, malayan civet, black and yellow broadbill
A highlight was an evening spent watching some truly touching moments between an orangutan mother with her very young baby. Many of Borneo’s orangutans are now in sanctuaries, so seeing them in the wild at Deramakot was special. Driving around Sabah, we understood why these great apes are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red data list; the island has essentially been all but cleared to make space for monocrop oil palm plantations. In small pockets like Deramakot where the indigenous forest is being sustainably maintained, the wildlife flourishes.
Orangutans at Deramakot, Rhinoceros Hornbill, Palm Oil plantations from above, Deramakot from above with far more clouds generated by the natural rainforest
Kinabatangan River, Borneo: We also spent a couple of great days on the Kinabatangan River, probably the most popular wildlife destination in Borneo, with plenty of great sightings of pygmy elephants, tremendous birdlife, and encounters with two of the most bizarre-looking mammal species: the evolutionary enigma of an animal that is the colugo (think: if a tailless, flying, nocturnal lemur and a deer had a baby) as well as the endemic proboscis monkeys.
Kinabatangan: Proboscis monkeys, Bornean pygmy elephant, river cruising and stork-billed kingfisher
Danum Valley, Borneo: At Danum Valley, one of the oldest rainforests in the world (130 million years old), we continued on foot. Getting out of the vehicle/off the boat allowed us to tune into the noises of the forest and the prehistoric and shy rhinoceros hornbill showed itself to us on a number of occasions. Many of the strange inhabitants of the forest required some work to find, but allowed us brief glimpses. A night time view of a mousedeer (a tiny nocturnal ungulate) and a close sighting of a family of red langurs were highlights. Heat-seeking, blood-sucking leeches on the forest trails were not. We left Borneo with a yearning to return -the search for clouded leopard will continue and I must confess that seeing a sun bear is also a real dream.
The magnificent Danum Valley Forest: Malayan civet, buffy fish owl, red langur, rhinoceros hornbill, Prevost's squirrel, young sambar deer
Arctic: In June, I spent three weeks guiding aboard a Quark ship in the high Norwegian Arctic on the archipelago of Svalbard where the primary focus of trips is looking for polar bears. Given the unpredictable and frankly dangerous nature of encountering these bears at a landing site, we spent hours on the outer decks of the ship looking through spotting scopes and making sure we could carry out our excursions safely. While finding and seeing the bears was a dream come true, heading north of 82 degrees north into the ‘north pole’ pack ice really felt like an adventure. The sun doesn’t set from April to August in Svalbard and it’s almost no wonder that the population of this massive archipelago is only a couple of thousand people given that there is complete darkness in winter from November to February. The vast thick billed murre colony at the cliffs of Allkefjellet and the loud, smelly haul outs of walrus were also highlights, but the standout sighting of my time up there was finding an Arctic fox mother and her three young kits playing on the shoreline.
Svalbard: Polar bear on beach, getting the zodiacs ready with the team, Arctic fox kits playing, walruses, parasitic jaegers, Quark Expedition Team scoping for bears ahead of a landing, Atlantic puffins
Cape Town: Hadley and I visited Cape Town a number of times in 2025. Hiking up Table Mountain in July in the pitch dark along the Right Face Arrow Traverse was a highlight. Here we had possibly one of the most epic cups of coffee while watching the sunrise. One of the many perks of Cape Town in winter is that in between the rainy days, you get some beautiful days where you can wake up at a fairly leisurely time and still catch sunrise (and there are just far less crowds).
On a later trip in November, we experienced one of the windiest weeks in South Africa’s Mother City and opted for an even more adventurous route up Table Mountain which is definitely not for the faint of heart. Kloof Corner Ridge straddles a narrow ridge up the side of the mountain and is more of a scramble than a hike, with three significantly challenging chain sections. The wind provided a wild factor but this was a bucket list hike for me and to do it with two close friends was an added bonus.
Franschhoek: We then headed out to the winelands where Hadley and I tied the knot surrounded by friends and family beneath the mountains at Boschendal Wine Farm. We still managed to take a moment to do some birding on wedding day.
The Kalahari: From Cape Town, we headed to Tswalu in the South African Kalahari in search of starry skies and wide open space (which we got! In our three days there I think we saw another vehicle only once). It is an area where the conservation success speaks for itself with over 280,000 acres of former farmland returned to its natural habitat that is now home to healthy populations of otherwise endangered black rhino, cheetah and wild dog. While we would never encourage seeking to encounter black rhino on foot, a few of the cheetah have become habituated to humans off the vehicles and we were able to safely view a mother and her three cubs playing in an open area at close quarters, a unique perspective and experience.
Some Tswalu gems: meerkats on foot, pygmy falcon and a cheetah family up close and personal
One of the packs of wild dogs has been similarly habituated and I was fortunate enough to see them get active while on foot, with some of the youngsters venturing extremely close. These experiences are not advertised by Tswalu as they are absolutely never a guarantee but a combination of very early wake ups, patience, our trackers’ skill and a certain degree of luck made the stars align on this trip. This is only one of many reasons why we love visiting Tswalu so much. The overall experience is just so unique and the diversity of activities (including getting to walk amongst a habituated group of meerkats) and species in combination with the exceptional comfort of the accommodation, warmth of the staff, and great food mean that Tswalu is somewhere we hope to be able to return for years to come. It is also a lodge that our guests compliment time and time again.
Mozambique: We ended off the trip on Benguerra Island in Mozambique, where the tropics rewarded us with warm water, great seafood, and exquisite snorkelling opportunities. The area is protected in an agreement between the non-profit organisation African Parks and the Mozambiquan government and these conservation efforts dating back to 1971 really show. The turtle populations are healthy with individuals no longer shy to human presence and the health and overall biodiversity of the reefs is astounding. We came up short in our efforts of finding the critically endangered dugong; though while searching, we did spot some humpback dolphins and a pair of quite shy reef manta rays.
Tswalu and Mozambique were also two of the destinations visited by our guests over the course of the year. 2025 was Trunks & Tracks’ busiest year to date with guests visiting 10 different countries and over 40 lodges in many different corners of the continent. The resounding sentiment is always that itineraries are most impactful and memorable when they incorporate the quieter, less visited, and more off the beaten track destinations. Exploring these quieter destinations (or busier destinations at quieter times of year) makes trips feel less rushed, which in turn facilitates a deeper connection with nature and the people working in these areas.
We find this natural connection so meditative; it’s so much easier to live in the moment and just be wholesome and happy when you feel immersed in and connected to nature. This happiness is something that can be seen throughout Africa in its people who live by the rhythms of day and night far more gracefully. This is something that those of us who spend most of our day behind a screen often forget to do. Visiting Africa and wilderness areas around the world restores our connection to nature and fuels our natural curiosity; sharing this feeling with our guests is one of the primary reasons Hadley and I founded Trunks & Tracks.
As we look ahead, 2026 is also set to be a great year of travel for Trunks & Tracks’ guests and for us personally. Hadley and I will be hosting a trip into the heart of Africa (the Congolese rainforest) to look for western lowland gorillas, forest elephant, and various other species. We also hope to visit Brazil’s Pantanal wetland later in the year to encounter jaguars. T&T guests travel to all over Africa including Ethiopia, Botswana, and Namibia, with a number of itineraries combining some very different regions in both Southern and East Africa. We eagerly anticipate our return to Londolozi in South Africa’s Kruger National Park (a lodge celebrating its centenary year in 2026) for a privately guided trip in the late dry season, and we hope to share more of our own travels with you over the coming months via blog, newsletter and podcast. Wishing all of our readers a wonderful year ahead and, as always, we encourage you to go outdoors as regularly as possible wherever you are. If you can be persuaded, bring a pair of binoculars and start looking out for birds. Download the Merlin app, which will help you to identify the birds in your neighbourhood.
Safe travels,
Jomi and Hadley