What's In My Carry Bag

Beginning in the top left corner of the photo and working clockwise.

A lightweight sport windbreaker that rolls into a small roll to slide into the bottom of the backpack I use as my carry on bag.

Small tube of roll on waterproof sunscreen spf 50

Tictac breath mints

Cell phone

Headlamp

Small Ziploc baggie with toilet paper and napkins folded in it.

An empty Ziploc is also inside that to hold my dirty socks if I change socks on the plane.

Also inside the T.P. baggie are a few IBprofen, a couple Imodium AD and a couple tagament. 

Extra pair of warm clean dry socks

Can of Pringles

Crushable foldable hat.  Sunglasses inside a hard shell carry case.  When traveling from Asia to USA or back I customarily put the hat and sunglasses in my checked bag.

My laptop inside a cushioned case that slides into a cushioned pocket in the backpack.

I usually carry the charger and cord which fits into a pocket in the cushioned carry case.

A money bag that can hang from my neck, but normally just lays in the bottom of the backpack.  Inside this bag is money from the countries I’m traveling through, extra passport size photos for visas, my frequent flier cards, California drivers license.  My passport when traveling is in a special easy to access pocket in the backpack or in my shirt pocket.

A small but really terrific Kodak video camera that is waterproof to 15 feet. 

The camera I used to take these photos which is a Canon Power shot A3100.

A thermal cup with lid ($1.00 at 7-11)

Inside the cup I carry a Ziploc baggie filled with sweetener and tea bags.   You can usually get hot water for free.  With the large cup you can actually drink some tea, not just have a sip or two like you get with those tiny airline cups that they only fill halfway.

Sometimes I add a couple Snickers bars to this bag.

A notebook and several pens in different colors with gel ink so the ink doesn’t run when my notebook gets wet.

My Kindle Ebook reader.  I still use their simple black and white model because I only use this for reading books.  This and my laptop are two of the most important things I carry.

Sometimes I carry maps in the carry on if going somewhere new for me.

About the Author:

Keith Jones is the founder of Baja Jones Adventures, Jones Adventures, Tigress Tours in Thailand and Butanding Tours in the Philippine Islands and has led thousands of people to Mexico and other interesting locations around the world. He specializes in gray whale tour, blue whale tour, gray and blue whale combo tour, giant panda bear tour, walk a tiger tour, shark tour, African safari tour, African gorilla trek, arctic narwhal tour and Magdalena Bay whale watching tour. He also writes about Baja travel and gray whales. Keith Jones is the author of Gray Whales My Twenty Years of Discovery.

Baby Gray Whales: Know A Bit More About Them

I know all of you get excited when you think about baby graywhales. Or at least i think you are probably interested in knowing some things about the babies that you might not read anywhere else (except in my book).

                                                  This is a young baby whale - mouth open

Baby gray whales are usually born beginning around mid-December through late January.

•The chance for survival is greatly enhanced if their mother can arrive at one of the Baja California, west coast nursery lagoons before she gives birth.

Just what are the survival chances for those newborn gray whales? Scientists have only been able make guesses – call them educated guesses based upon a wide range of observations – but still only guesses at this point in time.

The most widely accepted view of survival rates for gray whale babies at the end of one year is perhaps 80% to 90 % survive the first year if they are born inside one of the 3 major nursery lagoons.

That statistic flip-flops and is likely to be only a 10% to 20% survival rate for those unfortunate baby gray whales that are born in the open ocean while the mother is in the process of migrating south. 

                                        This baby gray whale is relatively young, perhaps 2 weeks.

Notice the uniform dark gray color. As the baby ages he will quickly develop light colored scar tissue all over his body from rubbing constantly against his barnacle clad mother. Her barnacles leave surface scratches that turn a lighter gray color.

Another characteristic of the very young gray whale is the shape of his head. Notice there is a hump like shape to the upper head in silhouette. A shape sometimes reminds me of a Chinese pug nosed dog.

I can tell this baby is more than a week old because the pre-natal folds of skin that hang around a newborn baby whale’s face, reminiscent of the breed of dog known as Sharpei, have already filled out. He has grown into those deep folds that are only visible during the first week or so after birth.

Another telling characteristic in this photo is the lack of barnacles. All gray whales begin developing barnacle growth almost as soon as they are born. After 2 weeks the young barnacles are obvious to the naked eye. In this photo I cannot see any developing barnacles.

My guess is this photo is of a baby whale between 7 and 15 days old.