A totally killer island

We are on the ferry leaving Seattle for the island of San Juan, a place that has become world renowned for its resident orca whale population. It is the best place in the world to see orcas from the land. If you go to Seattle or Vancouver it is definitely worth the visit as it also has one of the best campsites I have ever stayed at.

The ferry from Seattle which is just there in the background

Ralph hard at work

nicest camp site ever?

sunset from the campsite

We went on a sea kayak trip that ended whale less but with good views views of rhinocerous auklets, harbour seals and porpoise and river otter it was still a great day trip.  One of the guides had just come back from studying a little known species of sloth, the pygmy sloth in Panama, we were v jealous!

kelp i need somebody

perfectly out of sync

At the campsite we met a cool older dude named Richard who travelled around the US by bike and train. He told us about this deep ecology novel called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn which we found in the coolest second hand bookshop on the island which Richard has told us about. It's an amazing book I highly reccommend it,  although it focuses more on population than consumption (which grates a bit) it has some amazing stuff in it. There is a particularly powerful passage in it that I would urge all my conservation colleagues to read - it basically compares the paradigm of human development to those who first tried to fly without an understanding of aerodynamics. Quite a poor description but it really is better than I have made it sound!

Also at the campsite we met a load of cyclists from Tacoma, it seems Surly is as popular their as On One is at the lodge. They were super welcoming and gave us beer and coffee. There group contained 2 guys called called Greg, to avoid confusion they dubbed one New Greg and one Old Greg - as Mighty Boosh fans we found this pretty funny. 

always wanted to have a go on one of these

Beers by the camp fire

Tacoma bikers