Startled

The city of Chittagong in southern Bangladesh is home to a thriving port. The busiest trade in the port area is shipbreaking, an horrific practice whereby gigantic ships are taken apart bit by bit to be sold as scrap metal. The horrific part is that this is done by the hands of men, not machines. Men who are paid peanuts and who are not given personal safety equipment. Many of the beggars on the streets of Chittagong who are missing limbs formerly worked in the shipbreaking yards.

While this isn't a particularly fantastic photo of the animal, it does give a bit of scale to how big some of the ships are that come into the yards. It's a noisy business, and as this dog made his way along the beach, he was startled numerous times by the sounds of banging metal.

The Vista

I'd never had a burning desire to visit the USA, but I'd thought that if I did, I'd want to do a road trip in a convertible. When I ended up in the States I knew that it had to be done, and decided to drive up the west coast, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The only convertible the rental company had was a brand new, bright red Mustang, which seemed highly appropriate, so off I roared. The wind was in my hair, the sun was shining, and I had a fantastic mix CD that was perfect for singing along to at the top of my lungs. I drove along beside the ocean, through the forests, marvelling at the varying landscapes.

I passed a road sign that said "Elephant Seal Vista," and thought it an odd name for a lookout, since there couldn't possibly be any elephant seals. However when I approached the lookout, there were quite a few cars parked, so I pulled over to check it out. A couple of seconds passed before I realised all of the large rocks on the beach weren't rocks at all, but massive seals. It was nap time as there was barely any movement, and the thought crossed my mind that perhaps there'd been some freak accident and they were all dead. But every so often, a giant rumbling sigh would escape one as it wriggled around and rolled over.

I stood watching them for quite some time, and as the minutes rolled by, I could spot more action. There were two ginormous males having a tousle in the shallows, a little baby awkwarding sliding after its mother. But the vast majority were like the ones above, happy to laze around enjoying the sunshine.