Sandstone and water erosion created this Bastei view a million years ago.
Views fit for the 19th century romantics…
While en route from Prague to Dresden by bike for this article we just had to make a full stop before entering the latter city. A couple of hours (by bike) before the town lies a fantastically hidden place called Bastei: remnants of water erosion that happened a millions years ago.
What was left is an incredible landscape of 300 meter high rock pillars in what is now appropriately called Saxon Switzerland. It is actually one of the oldest mass tourist attractions on the continent and it’s easy to see why. You really cannot prepare for the vistas that are to be expected when taking the 45 minute walk to the top.
Hi-res Panorama of Bastei
In 1824 a wooden bridge was built that had to be upgraded to a sandstone one: the Basteibridge that is still in use today and is a monument to the building qualities of that day. Not surprisingly the place was highly favored by the romantics of the period like Casper Friedrich and Hans Christian Andersen. Going there is literally stepping back into the 19th century. That is if you can avoid the crowds by going up in a light drizzle, which also helps getting some spectacular low clouds in the picture. Stay in the village of Rathen if you’re not into rushing it, nice views and plenty of little restaurants which aren’t too packed after dusk sets in (and the tourbusses are gone).
360 Degree super Hi-res view over the Grand Canyon from Sab Bani Khamis.
It’s called Jabal Shamss, which translates to “Mountain of Sun” and what a fitting name it is. At an altitude of approximately 3.000 meters (10.000 feet) it’s majestically situated under an almost allways blue sky with the intense Arabian sun shining above it, casting it’s deep shadows into the depths below.
The hiking path of Jabal Shams.
Jabal Shams is not really a mountain as you’d expect, it’s a mindboggling crevasse of immense proportions, therefore the name “Grand Canyon of the Middle-East” is way more fitting. Not only is the viewpoint [Google Earth] at the road through the Al Hajar Mountains range one of the nicest stops in the region: an actual hike through the Canyon is even better as the path is situated halfway up the cliff face of about a thousand meters.
Tiny village 600 meters below us.
In order avoid the worst shadows we leave early for our hours-long trekking, the sun will be nice above us for most of the trip so we’ll be able to enjoy the best of the views. And boy, are those views amazing! From the early start till the final bits it’s hard to keep your eyes on the small but pretty manageable path. At points it gets close to the edge and one viewpoint is just simply breathtaking when we can see a tiny village more than 600 meters below us. Even with my biggest telelens it’s hard to get it fully visible. Apparently the few kids that live in the dozen or so houses are picked up daily for school but it’s just hard to imagine living there.
Mill stones in the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.
Even harder is imagining living in the deserted village Sab Bani Khamis [Google Earth] that we come across after an hour or so. It was abandoned after a dam closed off their water supply that made it possible to live there. Just simply imagine a rocky ledge of no more than thirty meters wide with a deadly drop to the depths of the canyon. A couple of terrasses where they managed to grow crops and a few mud houses underneath a hanging ledge that towers above for hundreds of meters. Now that’s remote living!
Fresh water in a hidden lake near the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.
After hiking through the tiny place and visiting a fantastic small mountain lake it’s time to hike out: not by going back but by taking the Via Ferrata [Google Earth]. Definitely not as simple as hiking to the village is this climb out while being secured to metal ropes which are placed so falling down is not an option anymore (while scrapes and bruises still are though!). The climb under the deep blue sky is exhilarating: not too easy but not too technical either. And what a great feel looking over your shoulder or between your legs: the massive stone canyon that goes on to the horizon. This is truly one of my favorite vies of the world.
Out of the Grand Canyon through the Via Ferrata.
The Amazing high-altitude sunsets at the Jabal Shams Resort (at 3.000 meters/10.000 feet).
Click here for the full photo-gallery on Flickr (27 images).
Links: Oman Tourism, Jabal Shams Resort (Great sunsets!)
More on Oman at Fotograferen.net here.
More Favorite views of the World on Fotograferen.net here.
If there’s one country that I can really recommend for a visit it’s got to be Indonesia. For our honeymoon we decided to take up an offer from a well-known travelcompany that we simply couldn’t refuse. Exciting as it was going to be my first (non-journalist) group travel ever and also my first time Asia. After having travelled half the world I somehow miraculously managed not to visit that huge part of the world. Something that I quite made up afterwards, travelling to Asia at least six times the next four years.
Java and Bali were going to be our destinations, the latter for diving, the first for round travel in two busses filled with us, tourists! Never figured group travel could be so much fun if you’re just lucky to hit the right combination of age, personalities and the amount of people travelling with you. We simply had a great time and one of the definite highlights of the trip was an old volcano called the Bromo [Google Earth].
It’s not a volcano as you’d normally see, it’s a small but highly active volcano which is situated in an unprecedented sandy area of almost ten square kilometers, the remnants of an even older volcano that blasted itself into history many, many millions of years ago. Seeing the sunrise on that old craters edge is one of the most popular highlights of Java and attracts countless tourist that walk up there very late at night (or better: very early in the morning).
So there we are at 03:30, after a wee night of sleeping getting our tired heads up a steep hill while beeing surrounded by zillions of Indonesian salesmen and women. Hats, umbrella’s, raincoats: guess it must rain here a lot because the majority of little shops are into that sort of stuff. Food is also highly available but who needs something to eat when you’re still in sleep-mode?
As high as the expectations so low is reality: the platform where we wait for the sun to come up over the crater rim is huge and packed with tourists, oh: that’s us then. Hundreds of people from all over the world have their camera ready and wait for the sun to burst through the fog. Which, sadly for us, manages not too. Leaving us with a half-baked sunrise and a good forty minute walk back down the road where a cup of hot soup awaits us. OK, now that’s a highlight!
Actually, the sunrise is nice but it’s the crater itself that’s way more interesting. A nice carride over the massive rim into the flat area where the actual Bromo active volcano resides. And by active, I really mean active: just short over eight months after our visit it suddenly went beserk and killed two tourists and injured five! But the horseride to the edge is amazing. Still can’t understand why all these horsemen compete eachother so massively. All looked like they haven’t got a dime to spare. Guess, if they worked together they could set some overall higher prices and actually make a bit of an income… there’s probably a reason but I felt sorry for them as the competition for tourists looked pretty nasty.
The sight into the grey and yellow crater is one to behold. Smoke still bellowing and a tribe of people walking around in it to catch the flowerofferings that people can buy for a few cents after which they throw them into the volcano. Good bit of recycling I suppose!
All in all a sight that should be high on the list of things to do and see in Java, definitely on of our many highlights and a true View of The World.
Due to the setting up a completely new interface for Fotograferen.net I’ve been lacking in my “Views of the World” postings. Sorry about that, but I’ll try to keep it a monthly affair from now on.
This months view is a truly classic: the Victoria Falls [Google Earth] as seen from Zimbabwe and Zambia. For several magazines and newspapers I have covered “The Route of the African Sun” in the 2005: a route between three of Sun Internationals greatest hotels in the Southern part of Africa. The final one on our route was the Royal Livingstone, a stunning five star hotel at the edge of the Victoria Falls in Zambia. With Zebras and Monkeys playfully surrounding your private hotelroom this is truly one of the most spectacular places to relax. Sipping good wines at the veranda while the sun sets, the African wildlife surrounds you with its noises and the water of the great Zambezi river floats underneath to a certain drop just hundreds of meters away.
However, the only right view is from the Zimbabwe side ,not an easy undertaking with all the horrible problems created by its dictator Robert Mugabe. We managed to get a (quite expensive) taxi-driver who proved his worth right after reaching the border facilities. We were through in minutes in what would have taken us an hour or more if we hadn’t have had him. A lot of money later (the Visa was ridiculously expensive too) we were finally there: Zimbabwe and a stone’s throw away from the falls. Not before spending way too much money again at the entrance to the falls we were finally allowed in and boy was it worth it!
Despite the gruelling 45 plus degree weather (exactly 24 hours later I was on the tarmac on Heathrow at minus 5!) the site was too stunning not too walk around for a long time. And even though it was very much dry-season for the falls, it was still an amazing sight to have experienced!
Finally, three high-res panoramic images to enjoy: The entrance of the falls.
One doesn’t stumble into little islands very often. Certainly not tropical ones, but some time ago I had the pleasure of actually doing so. On route while doing a major feature on Caribbean Island Hopping (which later won me this award) we had a stop in Saba [check in Google Earth], a tiny speck of green in a huge ocean of stunning blue.
It’s a little known island which is great because not too many visitors actually manage to get there. It’s so small, the Tourism Office usually knows exactly how many tourists are on the island at any given time. Very tiny indeed then, which makes it a fantastic place to beat the crowds while still being able to do some decent exploring.
Besides being a very small, the way to get there is quite unusual as too. Saba sports the smallest commercial airstrip in the world and at a length of a mere 400 meters it’s a sight to behold! Landing, while sitting behind an open cockpit of a Twin Otter [Youtube, 250.000 views in one year], is quite something as the only space to build the strip was a stretch of lava at the far end of the island. Yes, Saba is volcanic and that is also one of the main attractions: Mt.Scenery, an old volcanic dome which makes for a fantastic climb.
Going up through the lush green forest of the island one notices that the volcano blocks the moist air from the sea which makes for a lot of clouds and plenty of hillside rain! You need to be lucky to catch a good view because one minute it can be crystal clear, a minute later fog is all you will see. The good thing is that all off the rain makes this stunning island with a green color rarely seen in the Caribbean. Fortunately the inhabitants were smart enough to insist on a rigorous building code: all the houses are tiny cottages built in one style. You won’t find a more pittoresq place in this area easily.
The climb up the volcano isn’t really tough but the heat makes it strenuous during the hour and a half long ascent (1064 steps to be precise). But the higher one gets the more extreme the plantation gets as well: lush trees with huge leaves make you feel like you’re walking in a Jurassic Park setting but then, when you reach the top, the view is just unbelievable. This island is a pure tropical gem in the Caribbean seas, simply stunning and if you’re lucky the skies stay clear long enough to enjoy the view from all sides. Definitely worth the title of a Favorite View of the World!
Rome, it has got to be Europe’s most impressive city (yes, it easily beats Paris or London). There’s hardly a place on earth where you feel more bound to the past then here. Everywhere you look or walk there’s history, simply amazing!
So, while Rome in itself is worth the visit, a trip to the Vatican should be on everyones wishlisit as well, never mind the fact wether you are religious or not.
Click here for super-hires.
One of the, literally, highlights of any visit is climbing the dome of St. Peter’s which rises to a total height of 136.57 m (448.06 ft) from the floor of the basilica to the top of the external cross. It is the tallest dome in the world and to reach the outside balcony one has to climb about a zillion steps (it’s actually 320 from the lift but most people walk all the way which is a serious lot more). Parts take you close to the actual stonework of the dome, all small and crooked to walk. Very cramped and no place for claustrophobic people!
But when you finally reach the top (pick a “quiet” day or peroid in the year, it can be incredibly busy) the view is just stunning and definitely worth a title “Favorite Views of the World”. Enjoy!
A couple of years ago, while doing a series on the Pacific Coast Highway from Vancouver to San Diego, I ended up at the spectacularly beautiful Olympic National Park. As it is the most northwestern part of the country I decided to find the most western tip, which logically is also the most western part of the country as well.
One night at dinner and a nice conversation with some local tourists I was told I just simply had to go and visit Cape Flattery [see in Google Earth] as it is called. So, a day later and a nice drive along forest and bits of coastline I ended up at the border of the Makah Nation Indian reserve. I expected a bit more of an Indian heritage over here but as it turned out it was just a fishing village, slightly run-down but good to find you an oversized cup of coffee and likewise donut.
Cool thing is that this tribe is officially allowed to hunt Whales as part of their heritage. This, obviously, drives conservationists completely mad but I fail to see why this should be a problem. It’s not that they are dragging the Wales by the dozens out of the water.
But, anyway, the road stops and the Cape Flattery Trail begins. A fantastic half hour walk through an amazingly green cold Rain Forest. It’s like walking in the jungle but without the sweltering heat and sounds of very strange birds and animals that you can’t see anyway.
And suddenly you’re there: the most western tip of the US where massive Pacific waves slam into the rockface with a force so brutal the coastline changes constantly. It’s one of those places that is best seen when it’s a bit foggy. Gleaming leaves and damp trees just add to the spectacular views.
And to end this favorite view: a 360 QTVR panorama of Cape Flattery.
As my job as a travel writer/photographer takes me to some incredibly amazing parts of the earth I’ve been playing with the idea to do a sort “best of world views” series. Today part one, which is in no way a ranking but just the first to hit the list. Keep an eye open for more world views soon.
Leaving Italy after a hectic but great 2-day photoshoot for ANWB Wintersport Magazine we decided to leave early and enjoy a scenic drive instead of heading straight for the highway for the 11 hour drive back home to Holland.
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Just imagine a superb blue-sky day, fresh morning air, the most amazing color of green which stretches to lush mountain bases that reach for greyish white peaks. It doesn’t get any more perfect than that! Add to that a road that winds along straight cliffs and takes you between trees and endless breathtaking views [Google Earth]. Really, the Jaufenpass (which has long been made obsolete by the Brenner Pass) is a great way to kill some time and get your camera rollin’. Good for us because there are now less people using the 2000+ meter crossover.
With 39 kilometers and 20 major turning points is has got to be one of the finest roads in the Alps. If you’re ever near: do spend some time to enjoy it. Oh, and when you do reach the highway again after enjoy the stupidest toll-road payment ever: paying for 200 meters of it. Got to be Italy…
Nothing better than starting out the brand new year in London. While enjoying a few days of relaxation early January in this great city across the Channel I had some time to capture a few panorama’s of the impressive skyline. But, with a clear blue sky like this things really can’t go wrong anyway. The First two were taken from the top of the St.Paul’s Cathedral dome which is a very nice steep walk up to the top. Plenty of stairs to exercise the leg muscles and some incredible views halfway inside the church as well (which, sadly, you’re not allowed to photograph). Definitely worth the steep entry fee of £10 as, beside the impressive cathedral, the view over the City is worth the climb.
The last panorama was taken outside the city at the wide open fields of Greenwich Village Park. This place must be amazing during summer weekends but this nice Sunday afternoon was certainly no disappointment either. Greenwich is the oldest enclosed Royal Park and home to a small herd of fallow and red deer. Situated on top of a hill, visitors enjoy sweeping views across the River Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral and beyond. The park is part of the Greenwich World Heritage Site, host to the Prime Meridian Line and the old Royal Observatory, as well as having the National Maritime Museum as a neighbour.
For a change, these images were not captured with my Canon EOS 1DmkIII but with brand-new Canon G9, a camera which has plenty of features and some great controls but whose imagery is a bit disappointing considering this is Canon’s top model compact camera. Too much noise for my liking at the higher ISO range and horrible flash controls. Happily I didn’t have that problem here as these were captured at 80-100 ISO, no flash please!
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