-
Charming Creek
Charming Creek From 1928 onward, the Charming Creek Valley on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island became the scene of industrious coal-mining activity. A small railway track was built through the valley along the creek to transport the coal from the mine, which was about 10 kilometer inland, to the coast. After 30…
-
Battlefield after the battle
Battlefield after the battle Judging from the stumps that are left of them, the trees that once inhabited this little valley must have formed a nice and green copse. Something like the one nearby in the picture below. But alas, they were no match for the army of humans that came and felled each one of…
-
Treacherous Cook
Treacherous Cook At the foot of the Cook massif there is a big stone cube carrying dozens of brass-plates with the names of climbers that have fallen to their death on the treacherous slopes and glaciers of this high mountain peak. You’d better stay down and look up in awe at Cook from below, while contemplating…
-
Enchanting Alexandrina
Enchanting Alexandrina I visited Alexandrina early in the morning. A slanting slope of yellow grass beneath; a field of little white clouds fanning out in the sky above; and in between, Alexandrina stretched out in all her serene beauty. From afar, through a dip in the mountain range, Cook craned his neck and cast a covetous…
-
Salty beach
Salty beach My old Hachette guide tells me that very long ago, before the Tertiary Era, the Dead Sea was an expanse of sweet water lying above (!) the level of the Mediterranean. After the dislocation of the valley of the Jordan it sank to great depths and came into contact with salt deposits deep…
-
Dead at the Dead Sea
Dead at the Dead Sea This luxury resort at the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea looks pretty dead itself. Tastefully laid out in a colour scheme that pleasantly matches the backdrop of the Dead Sea landscape, it does look rather sterile. There’s no living soul to be seen; even the palm trees look artificial and…
-
See-through blouse
See-through blouse And even see-through underwear! All suspended on a clothesline. Meanwhile Aphrodite seems to be anxiously waiting till they’re dry. Photo of the week: Driftwood at Hokitika beach, New Zealand 2013
-
Holiday mood
Holiday mood I happily see myself sitting on this terrace, with a good book, a glass of wine and a bowl of pistachios from the trees below. From time to time looking out over the Gulf of Aegina, daydreaming, seemingly unmoved by the misery in which a large part of the population of this ancient country is…
-
Got you!
Got you! Life is: eating and being eaten. In the last instance it means death, but death for one is life for the other. Such is the law of nature. Photos of the week: Vondelpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2009
-
Grassphalt
Grassphalt Living is adapting. Nature is good at it. Humans can manage quite well too, but at what price! In their ambition to rule the world they often don’t know where to draw the line. Photo of the week: Lyon, France 2008
