Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympics are well underway. The games are of course controversial - my view has been to support Tibet and to lodge protests four years ago. I am rather skeptical of the celebrity types who come out 1-2 months before and during the event.
I take my lead from the Dalai Lama.
After all if we really wanted to send a message to China - stop buying every product you pretty much own. Write Nike and tell them you are willing to pay another 50% for the product if they produced it north america.
I think a lot of diplomacy can happen in and around the sports field.
Athletes participating have spent four years or more preparing so my approach is to focus on some remarkable abilities and accomplishments and resume the politics after the games are over.
An interesting bit of sports/political trivia is that US/China relations took an upswing as a result of Chinese/US athletes friendship and ultimately led to a faster initiation of the famous Nixon trip. In many texts and papers that visit is credited with an increased awareness and an opening up of China and ultimately led to western interest and eventual acceptance of for example-acupuncture.

Everest viewing

My brother got back a month or so ago from puttering around Nepal, everest base camp and Annapurna. These are a couple of my favourite shots. An incredible place. I am keeping it on my list of places to visit.

Kids Day at Pippy Park

The Outfitters sponsored a great event for kids, but all ages turned up to try kayaking. When expert kayakers weren't on the water supervising, they were goofing around.
A great idea to promote kayaking and water safety.

The Arch on Great Island

This photo was taken by P Hanrahan - it gives only a partial idea of the swell and the chaotic conditions that day. But it is a great shot of the Arch. None of us felt it was reasonable to get to close to this feature on the day we were out. You have to choose your day, but it is a reliable spot - it is going to be there for the next trip.

I can see why fellow kayakers enjoy the videotape feature. Fooling
around with this little Canon cybershot provides a bit of a sense of what is happening, particularly the sounds. Coming close to Great Island the bird calls are
quite amazing and unrelenting. If I can get handy with it for more than 40 seconds I could be on to something. Some days it is hard enough to paddle, keeping a small video camera in line adds a new dimension to the trip.

Tors Cove to Great Island

We headed back to the southern shore and couldn't resist another run to Great Island.
It was sea bird madness out there - puffins diving by us and bumping into us, loons, and numerous others.

Devil's Throat

You would think a rock feature like the upper part of a skull would be a deterrent to entering a cave that is the orbit of an eye, but that hasn't been the case.
With care and the right conditions, especially a healthy respect for the swell - you can enter quite safely.
Keep your hat on and don't look up - the sea birds seem to have an uncanny accuracy for hitting visitors with guano bombs.