Picture Gallery: Adventure

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Bokod is the lake in Hungary, some 80 kilometers west of Budapest. It’s an interesting and beautiful place. Plenty of old fishing houses on the water which look rather romantic with the various wooden bridges. Bokod Hungary is not a tourist destination. It is barely visited – it’s just an old village on a lake. Along the lake shore, rickety boardwalks lead out over the lake to old fishing cottages that stand on stilts. It’s not the nicest location, but I think there’s something enchanting about the photographs, and there is certainly something artsy about the boardwalks and cottages on the misty water.

Bara Imambara is an imambara complex in Lucknow, India, built by Asaf-ud-Daula, Nawab of Lucknow, in 1784. It is also called the Asafi Imambara. Bara means big, and an imambara is a shrine built by Shia Muslims for the purpose of Azadari. The Bara Imambara is among the grandest buildings of Lucknow. Construction of Bara Imambara was started in 1785, a year of a devastating famine, and one of Asaf-ud-Daula's objectives in embarking on this grandiose project was to provide employment for people in the region for almost a decade while the famine lasted.

It is said that ordinary people used to work in the day building up the edifice, while noblemen and other elite worked at night to break down anything that was raised that day. It was a project that preceded a Keynesian like intervention for employment generation. Construction of the Imambara was completed in 1791. Estimated cost of building the Imambara ranges between half a million rupees to a million rupees. Even after completion Nawab used to spend between four and five hundred thousand rupees on its decoration annually.

Source: flickr.com/photos/114803912@N02/12466345304/in/faves-51065869@N05/

The Statue of Dacian king Decebalus is a 40-m high statue that is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. It is located on the Danube's rocky bank, near the city of Orşova, Romania. It was commissioned by Romanian businessman and historian Iosif Constantin Drăgan and it took 10 years, from 1994 to 2004, for twelve sculptors to finish it. The final cost was over one million dollars. Under the face of Decebalus there is a Latin inscription which reads "DECEBALUS REX - DRAGAN FECIT" ("King Decebal - Made by Drăgan"). On the Serbian side facing Romania, there is an ancient memorial plaque (Tabula Traiana) commemorating the victories of the Roman Empire over the Dacian kingdom in 105.

The Oneonta Gorge is in the Columbia River Gorge in the American state of Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service has designated it as a botanical area because of the unique aquatic and woodland plants that grow there. The basalt walls are home to a wide variety of ferns, mosses, hepatics and lichens, many of which grow only in the Columbia River Gorge. Oneonta Creek runs through the gorge. There are four major waterfalls on the creek. Middle Oneonta Falls can be seen clearly from a footpath and is very often mistaken for the upper or lower falls. The lower gorge has been preserved as a natural habitat, so there is no boardwalk or footpath through it as such.

Thus, Lower Oneonta Falls can only be seen by walking upstream from the creek's outlet at the Historic Columbia River Highway. To get to a vantage point where the entire lower falls is visible can require wading through water that in some places can be chest-deep, depending on the season and the relative amount of snow-melt. The upper falls are about 1 mile upstream from the middle falls and require scrambling up the creek or climbing down a canyon wall to view. The fourth falls which is "Triple falls" can be seen from a vantage point on the upper trails in the canyon.

Angel Falls is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of 979 m and a plunge of 807 m. The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyantepui mountain in the Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State. The height figure 979 m mostly consists of the main plunge but also includes about 400 m of sloped cascades and rapids below the drop and a 30-metre high plunge downstream of the talus rapids. The falls are on the Gauja River (alternatively known as the Kerep River or Kerepacupai), which flows into the Churun River, a tributary of the Carrao River.

Angel Falls is one of Venezuela's top tourist attractions, though a trip to the falls is a complicated affair. The falls are located in an isolated jungle. A flight from Puerto Ordaz or Ciudad Bolívar is required to reach Canaima camp, the starting point for river trips to the base of the falls. River trips generally take place from June to December, when the rivers are deep enough for the wooden curiaras used by the Pemon guides. During the dry season (December to March) there is less water seen than in the other months (This can be clearly seen in the photos of the falls above)

Melissani Cave or Melissani Lake, also Melisani is a cave located on the island of Kefalonia, northwest of Sami, about 5 km SE of Agia Efthymia, NE of Argostoli and NW of Poros. The Ionian Sea lies to the east with the Strait of Ithaca. Forests surrounds the cave and the mountain slope is to the west. Near the cave is the entry to the cave with parking lots and is passed almost in the middle of the main road linking Sami and Agia Efimia especially to the northern part of the island. In Greek mythology, Melissani was the cave of the nymphs. The cave features a lake that are surrounded with trees and forests. The cave is located east of the mountains of Evmorfia and Agia Dynati. Tourism is common in the cave. The cave features a sky-blue lake covered with stones at the bottom. Plants are at the door of the cave. The color of the rocks which are stucco to honey-like brown is at the door of the cave. The lake is also inside the cave. The cave was rediscovered in 1951 by Giannis Petrocheilos.

The Goðafoss is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Iceland. It is located in the Mývatn district of North-Central Iceland at the beginning of the Sprengisandur highland road. The water of the river Skjálfandafljót falls from a height of 12 meters over a width of 30 meters. In the year 999 or 1000 the Lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. After his conversion it is said that upon returning from the Alþingi, Þorgeir threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall. Þorgeir's story is preserved in Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók. A window in the Cathedral of Akureyri (Akureyrarkirkja) illustrates this story. MS Goðafoss, an Icelandic ship named after the waterfall, was carrying both freight and passengers. It was sunk by a German U-Boat in World War II, resulting in great loss of lives.

Source: 500px.com/photo/18240563/goðafoss-iceland-by-james-appleton

Source: 500px.com/photo/10078943/godafoss-by-dennis-fischer

Skradinski buk is one of the most attractive parts of the park. It is a massive, clear, natural pool with high waterfalls at one end and cascades at the other, located in the Krka National Park in Croatia. It is the lowest of the three sets of waterfalls formed along the Krka river. In an area 400 m in length and 100 m in width there are 17 waterfalls and the total difference in height between the first and the last falls is 47.7 m. Due to the wealth and variety of geomorphological forms, vegetation, and the various effects caused by the play of light on the whirlpools, Skradinski buk is considered to be one of the most beautiful calcium carbonate waterfalls in Europe. The rate of flow is 43 m3 a second in winter, 18 m3 in summer, with an average of 55 cubic metres a second flowing down Skradinski buk annually. It is the largest travertine cascade system in Europe.

When you are at the Krka National Park there are several places of interest. The attractions and facilities available are various footpaths, sightseeing tours and presentations, boat trips, souvenir shops, a museum, and restaurants. There are also several archeological remains of unpreserved fortresses in the park's vicinity dating back to as far as the Roman times. They are Čučevo, Nečven, Bogočin, Ključica and Burnum.

Source: flickr.com/photos/rkroenert/10156092003/

Source: 500px.com/photo/4880600/krka-waterfall-by-dusan-milak

Source: flickr.com/photos/sergiu_bacioiu/4404273656/

Forget about the Four Seasons Hotel. Next time you're in Tepoztlán, Mexico, go book a stay at T3arc Architecture's Tubo Hotel. Instead of some posh hotel room with cable, how about trying to sleep in a recycled concrete pipe? Come on, you'll be the envy of all of Japan's capsule hotel residents. The Tubo Hotel is not your typical hotel. For starters it only has enough room for a queen-sized bed, fan, lighting and an under-bed storage for towels. You won't feel like a king, but you should at least get an inkling of what Super Mario must see when he warps through all those pipes in the Mushroom Kingdom.

But, I digress, the Tubo Hotel's rates are kind of dirt cheap. Rooms for two start at $300 pesos (about $24) and go up to $600 pesos (about $47) for ground floor tubes and $400 pesos (about $32) and shoot up to $700 pesos (about $55) for a "top-of-the-pyramid tube for those who live in the clouds." Tubo Bar and Tubo Restaurant are coming soon. Okay, but if you want some Tubo privacy, you can use that little curtain each tube room has for whatever it is people do in hotels.

Source: www.dvice.com/archives/2012/03/concrete_pipe_h.php

Source: architizer.com/projects/tubohotel/

Hamilton Pool Preserve is a natural pool that was created when the dome of an underground river collapsed due to massive erosion thousands of years ago. The pool is located about 23 miles west of Austin, Texas off Highway 71. Since the 1960s, Hamilton Pool has been a popular summer swimming spot for Austin visitors and residents. Hamilton Pool Preserve consists of 232 acres of protected natural habitat featuring a jade green pool into which a 50-foot waterfall flows. The pool is surrounded by large slabs of limestone that rest by the water's edge; large stalactites grow from the ceiling high above. The ceiling and surrounding cliffs of the grotto are home to moss, maidenhair fern and cliff swallows. The Ashe juniper (cedar) uplands of the preserve are home to the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. The natural pool and creek are not chemically treated, so water quality is monitored regularly and swimming is occasionally restricted. Hamilton Pool is part of the Balcones Cayonlands Preserve and is a protected environment.

If you’ve had the opportunity to visit one of Ra Paulette’s art caves in the Embudo area, the word “transcendent” might occur to you when describing the experience. “I call it the cave effect,” Paulette said. “There are some perceptual and psychological things that are in play, as far as a medium goes, that are advantages in this work.” And work it is. The process of creating his underground cathedrals is intensely physical, as viewers of CaveDigger will see. The new documentary film screens at the Center for Contemporary Art on Tuesday and Sunday, July 9 and 14. Even though his medium is relatively soft sandstone, it is rock, and the cave sites are remote. You get an inkling of the effort involved when you observe Paulette trudging, climbing over the landscape on his way to his current cave project, a wheelbarrow and tools strapped to his back. Then there’s all the digging and carving, creating arches and walls, shoveling all the loose stuff into the barrow, and hauling it outside the cave entrance.

Source: www.santafenewmexican.com

Source: buro247.com/images

Other Images from : flickr.com/photos/hnicpena/12077519305/in/photostream & santafesir.com

Dry lightning is a term which is used to refer to lightning strikes occurring without significant precipitation. The term is a technical misnomer since lightning itself is neither wet nor dry, and also because the thunderstorms which sometimes cause it actually do produce precipitation, although the precipitation does not reach the ground in significant amounts.

Source: www.abqphotographersgallery.com/knate-myers.html

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves attraction is a cave at Waitomo on the North Island of New Zealand, known for its population of glowworms, Arachnocampa luminosa. This species is found exclusively in New Zealand. They are around the size of an average mosquito. This cave is part of the Waitomo Caves system that includes the Ruakuri Cave and the Aranui Cave. The attraction has a modern visitor centre at the entrance, largely designed in wood. There are organized tours that include a boat ride under the glowworms. The most renowned animal in the cave is the glowworm Arachnocampa luminosa. There are several small underwater lakes that were created by freshwater creeks or brooks.

The walls of the caves are covered with a variety of fungi including the cave flower (a distant relation to the genus Pleurotus) that is actually a mushroom-like fungus. The most common animals in the caves are insects. This includes albino cave ants, giant crickets, and of course the glowworms.

Source: 500px.com/photo/56841620/glowing-in-the-dark-by-fabian-ebi

Krubera Cave is the deepest known cave on Earth. It is located in the Arabika Massif of the Gagrinsky Range of the Western Caucasus, in the Gagra district of Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The difference in the altitude of the cave's entrance and its deepest explored point is 2,197 ± 20 metres. It became the deepest-known cave in the world in 2001 when the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached a depth of 1,710 m which exceeded the depth of the previous deepest known cave, Lamprechtsofen, in the Austrian Alps, by 80 m. In 2004, for the first time in the history of speleology, the Ukrainian Speleological Association expedition reached a depth greater than 2,000 m, and explored the cave to −2,080 m. Ukrainian diver Gennadiy Samokhin extended the cave by diving in the terminal sump to 46 m depth in 2007 and then to 52 m in 2012, setting successive world records of 2,191 m and 2,197 m respectively. Krubera remains the only known cave on Earth deeper than 2,000 metres.

Source: humorsharing.com

Zlot Caves is the collective term for two caves, Lazar's Cave and Vernjikica, located in the town of Zlot, in the Bor municipality in eastern Serbia. There are 22 km from the caves to Bor and 240 km to Belgrade. The Lazar's Cave is 1.592 m long (the tourist paths 694.5 m) and the Vernjikica 1,015 m (tourist paths 620.50 m). The air temperature in Lazar's Cave ranges between 9 C – 12 C and relative air humidity is 100%; in the Vernjikica cave, the air temperature ranges between 3 C and 9 C and the air humidity is 100%. The Zlot Caves have a permanent guide service. Tours of Lazareva cave last 30-40 minutes and of Vernjikica 3 hours. Visiting hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (from April 1 to October 31), and in winter period by appointment.

Source: ocdn.eu

The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona and California, and of Northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest deserts in North America, with an area of 280,000 square kilometers. The western portion of the United States–Mexico border passes through the Sonoran Desert.

In phytogeography, the Sonoran Desert is within the Sonoran Floristic Province of the Madrean Region in southwestern North America, part of the Holarctic Kingdom of the northern Western Hemisphere. The desert contains a variety of unique and endemic plants and animals, such as the Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) and Organ Pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi). Many plants not only survive, but thrive in the harsh conditions of the Sonoran Desert. Many have evolved to have specialized adaptations to the desert climate. The Sonoran Desert's bi-seasonal rainfall pattern results in more plant species than in the other North America deserts. The Sonoran Desert includes plant genera and species from the agave family, palm family, cactus family, legume family, and numerous others.

Source: 500px.com/photo/14324657/sunlight-sunshower-by-ben-elliott

Source: 500px.com/photo/35290970/untitled-by-scott-mcguire

Source: 500px.com/photo/29708323/almost-light-by-peter-coskun

Source: fineartamerica.com/featured/sonoran-sunrise-saija-lehtonen.html

Island Park is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The city's population was 286 at the 2010 census, up from 215 in 2000. The city was incorporated by owners of the many lodges and resorts along U.S. Route 20 in 1947, primarily to circumvent Idaho's liquor laws that prohibited the sale of liquor outside of city limits. It is only 500 feet wide in most locations and, at 33 miles, claims to have the longest "Main Street" in the world. Island Park is part of the Rexburg Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Source: carynesplin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CarynEsplin_IslandParkHDR.jpg

Lake McDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National Park. It is located at 48°35′N 113°55′W in Flathead County in the U.S. state of Montana. Lake McDonald is approximately 10 miles long, and over a mile wide and 472 feet deep, filling a valley formed by a combination of erosion and glacial activity. Lake McDonald lies at an elevation of 3,153 feet and is on the west side of the Continental Divide. The Going-to-the-Sun Road parallels the lake along its southern shoreline. The surface area of the lake is 6,823 acres.

The lake is home to numerous native species of trout, and other game fish. Catchable species include, but are not limited to - cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, bull trout (char), lake trout (char), Lake Superior whitefish, mountain whitefish, kokanee salmon (landlocked sockeye), and suckers. However, the lake is nutrient-poor and is not considered a prime fishing destination. Grizzly bears, black bear, moose, and mule deer are found in many places near the lake but are most common on the north shore. The lake is surrounded by a dense coniferous forest dominated by various species of spruce, fir, and larch. At the westernmost section of the lake in Apgar there is a National Park Service visitor center, limited lodging and dining facilities as well as outboard powerboats available for rental. Lake McDonald Lodge is the largest lodging facility on the lake and is approximately 5 miles east along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. McDonald Creek flows into and drains from the lake, and empties into the Middle Fork Flathead River shortly after.

Source: 500px.com/photo/44263072/lake-mcdonald-by-jason-savage

Source: flickr.com/photos/ryandyar/13277176145/in/faves-sheldonnalos/

Source: 500px.com/photo/4168701

Moraine Lake is a glacially-fed lake in Banff National Park, 14 kilometres outside the Village of Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. It is situated in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, at an elevation of approximately 6,183 feet. The lake has a surface area of .5 square kilometres. The lake, being glacially fed, does not reach its crest until mid to late June. When it is full, it reflects a distinct shade of blue. The colour is due to the refraction of light off the rock flour deposited in the lake on a continual basis.

The area around the lake has several walking/hiking trails which are, from time to time, restricted. This is the one most commonly taken by tourists. The Rockpile Trail along the actual moraine is approximately 300 metres long, with an elevation change of 24 metres. The view of the lake from the top of the rockpile is one of the most photographed locations in all of Canada. That view of the mountains behind the lake in Valley of the Ten Peaks is known as the Twenty Dollar View, as Moraine Lake was featured on the reverse side of the 1969 and 1979 issues of the Canadian twenty dollar bill. Along the same trailhead, the Consolation Lakes trail starts, which is approximately 3 kilometres long, with an elevation change of 90 metres. Upon reaching Consolation Lakes hikers may continue along to the upper lake, which is not visible from the end of the lower lake. There is, however, no clearly marked trail, and can often be a scramble over large rocky areas.

Near the canoe docks of Moraine Lake Lodge there is another trailhead. This trailhead is the start of two trails, one of which branches out into four different trails - so there are in total, five trails starting at that trailhead (Moraine Lake Lakeshore Trail, Eiffel Lake, Wenkchemna Pass, Larch Valley, and Sentinel Pass). The Lake Louise & Yoho Map provides information on these trails.