Travis Holmes: NOLS - Alaska Canoe Epic, A Love Story and Crocodile Bites Canoe Paddle

Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field

Travis Holmes was born in grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He lived most of his life in Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon; however, for the past 15 years, he has been living in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, with his wife, ten and 8-year-old kids.

Travis worked in outdoor education for much of the 1990s and 2000s. His work lifeguarding in swimming pools led me to the University of Alberta Paddling Society, where he really got into white water kayaking and began teaching kayaking and river rescue. Travis later became the canoe and river paddling coordinator for the University of Alberta Campus Outdoor Centre and director of education for the Alberta Whitewater Association before becoming a full-time NOLS instructor. Over the next ten years, he instructed hiking, canoeing, white water kayaking, rafting, sea kayaking, rock climbing and sailing courses for NOLS.

Travel led courses throughout Western Canada, Alaska & and the central west USA, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia for NOLS. While working in Western Australia, he met his wife and later settled in Tasmania, where his wife had some roots. He continued working in Tasmania as a commercial bushwalking and river guide for a while before returning to University to finish his Honours degree in geology.

Travis is still expeditioning for a living, but now he is doing it as an exploration geologist. Before COVID, he had been exploring remote parts of Tasmania, Western Australia and British Columbia, looking for much-needed battery metals such as Cobalt, Nickel and Tin. However, COVID has pinned him down to Tasmania for the past few years. Now that travel is open, he is planning a big family expedition sailing in the Arctic waters around Ellesmere Island and North-western Greenland this coming summer.