Copyright: @Brad Siviour. Brad in Yankicha Island, Kuril Islands
Expedition cruise voyages take passengers to remote corners of the world. Today, I sat down with Brad Siviour, a senior Expedition Leader and marine biologist to chat about what it takes to develop an expedition cruise itinerary, his scouting trip adventures, and what skills are required to be a good expedition leader.
Brad, tell me how you got into expedition cruising.
I studied marine biology and ecotourism at university which got me into guiding/tourism initially; and my goal was to guide in truly remote places. After university, I worked as a tour guide in Northern Australia along its coastline, guiding cultural, wildlife, and bird watching tours. It was through this job that I heard about expedition ships, as some passengers of those ships would come and stay with us at the lodge where I worked in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. After a little bit of research, I sent out a few emails and applied for a job onboard one of the Expedition ships that offered Kimberley Coast itineraries in the Northwest Australia. I was successful with that application, and I ended up working five months straight in the Kimberley for my first season and couldn’t get enough of it!
Since then, you travelled across the globe. Is there a place that you would go back to without a second thought? Why?
Macquarie Island. Photo credit @Brad Siviour
For me that place is Russian Far East. I spent five seasons working in the Bering Sea and that is the place I never get tired of: it is incredibly remote, pristine, and secluded. The culture, wildlife, and scenery are phenomenal. Sadly it is off limits at the moment with everything that that is going on, but if I was to pick one place on the planet to go back on an expedition ship it would be Russian Far East and the Bering Sea. The second would be the NZ sub-Antarctic Islands – again for their sheer remoteness and abundance of wildlife.
Gray Whale in Russian Far East, photo credit @Brad Siviour
As a senior expedition leader, you were involved in expedition planning. Walk me from through the process of what it takes to put an expedition cruise itinerary together.
Companies are always looking for new itineraries, especially if they have a lot of repeat passengers and want to offer them something new. The process usually starts with looking at the route the ship will probably take. Most expedition ships are typically based in polar regions during their respective summers, and new itineraries are usually developed based on chosen repositioning trajectory between the poles. Once the overall route is established, you then start looking at the remote or unconventional places where you could stop and consider various aspects: will it offer enough shelter, what would be the best approach for the ship, and what will be the potential landing sites and activities. It’s not always just about wildlife and scenery: in regions such as Indian Ocean or South Pacific, you would look at the various cultures in the region and determine which small villages you could potentially visit. While planning itineraries, you also must keep in mind that you will probably be pressed for time while having to cover huge distances – repositioning itineraries differ from destinations such as Antarctica or the Arctic where you typically have repeat voyages during the season. Saying this, I absolutely love the process and coming up with the new ideas, thinking about the places I travelled to before and my personal experiences, and how I can share some of them with the passengers – it’s always good fun.
New Zealand. Photo credit: @Brad Siviour
How about scouting trips? What role do they play in expedition cruise planning?
I have been fortunate to go on quite few scouting trips during my career and it generally starts with doing extensive research about the destination or region you are planning to visit – you would typically research online, read books, use travel guides such as Lonely Planet, all while looking at the highlights of the place. Once you have a rough plan formulated of the destination you would like to visit, you would then get in touch with local tour operators and work with them to come up with a more detailed itinerary and schedule the visit. Once that is finalized, it is then a matter of going to the field and visiting those places, trying local tours and experiences, and exploring the coastline to check locations for potential landing sites. Establishing how you will get the clients ashore- using zodiacs or if the ship can come alongside a pier - is a big task of a scouting trip. Another key consideration when deciding on a potential landing site is whether you will be able to do that in all conditions, so learning about the swells, wind direction, and shelter is key to the task too. Itinerary planning is certainly not as simple as picking a spot on the map and thinking this will have to work - it is a complex process.
Arctic Sea Ice. Photo Credit: @Brad Siviour.
Where in the world did you go to scout destinations?
Once, I spent two weeks in Central America, exploring the Pacific coastline of Costa Rica. That was a great trip – I explored various tours in the interior there. I also developed a great itinerary in the Bay Islands in Honduras that included visiting some villages, zodiac cruising along the coastline and snorkeling. During a scouting trip to Tonga, I looked at few little islands where we could land and potentially swim with humpback whales during the whale season (with the assistance of a local, licensed operator). I also explored Vanuatu and spent two weeks in Fiji visiting as many islands as I possibly could, going to local villages, finding potential snorkeling sites, dive sites and hiking areas.
What is your most memorable scouting trip experience?
I would probably say it was one particular day in Fiji. I was checking out a small island group called Yasawa islands when I was approached by an owner of one of the resorts in one of the islands who told us he was starting a bull shark diving tour just a few miles off the coast in the blue water. He offered to take me out on a dive trip on his boat - just myself, him, and one of his guides. And so we went to this spot in the middle of the ocean, no land in site, where he had a small mooring that we could tie the boat to. We soon dived in with our scuba gear, took some burley with us (chumming, editor notes) for the sharks and within about five minutes we were surrounded by about fifteen bull sharks, each three-to-four meters long. It was a phenomenal experience to see that many of them in one place.
Let’s talk a little about your experience as an expedition leader. What were the elements of the job that you enjoyed most?
One aspect of the job that I particularly love, and especially when we go to the remote areas, is to look at the itineraries well in advance and see if there are any places that I could tweak or add an additional stop, and maybe modify it slightly based on my experience of the region to give the best possible experience to the clients. I really do enjoy enhancing itineraries and adding as much as I can where possible.
Visiting remote destinations such as Russian Far East or the Kimberley coast in Australia where you go for days on end without seeing another boat or a person, surrounded by nature and in complete isolation has always been my personal highlight of the job. As an expedition leader, you are also very involved in planning the daily activities onboard and ashore. You are managing the team, delegating duties of certain operations, and you are also the face of the whole trip for the passengers, so it is your responsibility to make sure they are happy with the experience. I love interacting with the passengers on the daily basis, giving them the information during daily briefings and being the first line of communication onboard.
What do you think are the skills of a great expedition leader?
Expedition leader’s must be excellent communicators because communication is one of the key tasks of the job. During the voyage, you work with internal teams, including the captain, expedition team, hotel department, deck officers etc. to make sure shore operations are safe, and are coordinated with the rest of the activities onboard the ship. I also always make sure I am transparent with the passengers and give them all the necessary information they need. You must be a good people’s manager. The Expedition team live and work onboard the ship in very close proximity to one another and at times it can become overwhelming, so you must be good at dealing with people’s emotions. In addition to this, you should have a good understanding of the places you visit, of the weather conditions that may impact the trip, regardless of where you are travelling to, and that all can change at a very short notice. You must adapt to those changes and have a number of alternative options already planned and ready to be implemented. Managing client expectations is also high on the list of the desirable skills for an expedition leader. Due to sometimes unrealistic marketing, some guests come on board thinking they will have close encounters with polar bears, or have whales breaching next to their zodiac, or be able to swim side by side with ocean giants such as whale sharks or manta rays, or that they can candle and pet penguins. It’s important during the daily briefings to be honest and open about the likelihood and possibility of such encounters, and that nothing is guaranteed. It’s all on natures’ terms.
What makes expedition cruising a unique form of travel in your opinion?
The industry has evolved significantly since I started working onboard the ships ten years ago – at the time, it was difficult to explain to someone what I did for the job. There were few expedition ships, most were around the 100-200 pax mark, and it was a very niche industry targeted at the more adventurous traveller. Today, there are many new ships being built, they are larger in size, and there is far more public awareness of expedition cruising as a form of travelling, mostly driven by social media and the news.
To me, the beauty of expedition cruising is the ability to access truly remote, in relatively small groups having no impact on the sites we visit. Taking guests out in the elements, out of their comfort zones to gain raw experiences, and then coming back to the comfort, facilities, and service onboard.
Name one item you do not leave home without when you travel.
I am a wildlife and landscape photography enthusiast, so the first think I always think of before a trip is how much camera equipment I will take. Aside from that, a good pair if binoculars, a reusable coffee cup and a jar of Vegemite are the other things I’ll always be sure to pack.
Thank you, Brad.
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