From the World Heritage inscription for the Kew Gardens: Set amongst a series of parks and estates along the River Thames’ south-western reaches, this historic landscape garden includes work by internationally renowned landscape architects Bridgeman, Kent, Chambers, Capability Brown and Nesfield illustrating significant periods in garden design from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The …
Standing on the most north-easterly mainland point of the British Isles, the wind blows continually. Offshore amongst raging waters is a collection of islands, the Orkney Islands. The North Atlantic and the North Sea rage whatever the weather. The Pentland Firth, which stands between the British mainland and the Orkney Islands, is well known for …
From the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage inscription: The site lies on the north coast of the County of Antrim, Northern Ireland, and includes the Causeway Coast extending for about 6 km between Causeway Head and Benbane Head. The Causeway Coast has an unparalleled display of geological formations representing volcanic activity during the early Tertiary period …
From the World Heritage inscription: At its height the Roman Empire extended into three continents. Its borders reflected the waxing and waning of power over more than a millennium. In what is now Germany there were several military campaigns into the area north of the Alps and east of the River Rhine from 55/53 BC …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Defense Line of Amsterdam: Extending 135 km around the city of Amsterdam, this defense line (built between 1883 and 1920) is the only example of a fortification based on the principle of controlling the waters. Since the 16th century, the people of the Netherlands have used their expert …
From the World Heritage inscription for Dorset and East Devon Coast: Located on the south coast of England, the property comprises eight sections along 155 km of coast. The property has a combination of geological, palaeontological and geomorphological features. These include a variety of fossils, a beach renowned for its pebbles and textbook examples of …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Willandra Lakes Region: The Willandra Lakes Region, in the semi-arid zone in southwest New South Wales (NSW), contains a relict lake system whose sediments, geomorphology and soils contain an outstanding record of a low-altitude, non-glaciated Pleistocene landscape. It also contains an outstanding record of the glacial-interglacial climatic oscillations …
Like bungee jumping, tattoos and photography, SCUBA diving is something I never did prior to the start of my trip. I did my first dive and got my certification in Lahania in Maui. Since then I have dove in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Palau and the Great Barrier Reef. Some of my dives have …
Over the last several days I’ve been going through packages of DVDs and hard drives I shipped home from the road with backups of my travel photos. After many hours I have finally assembled all my photos together and have created identical copies on two, 1 terabyte hard drives. Despite all the overseas shipments, the …