Paradise of Nature- Ha Long Bay, Vietnam- 15 Images

Ha Long Bay is one of the world’s natural wonders and is the most beautiful tourist destination of Vietnam. Ha Long Bay, situated in the Gulf of Tonkin, includes some 1600 islands and islets forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and relatively unaffected by human influence. A distinctive feature of Ha Long Bay is the abundance of lakes within the larger limestone islands. For example, Dau Be island has six enclosed lakes.

Some of the islands support floating villages of fishermen, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Many of the islands have acquired their names as a result of interpretation of their unusual shapes. Such names include Voi Islet (elephant), Ga Choi Islet (fighting cock), and Mai Nha Islet (roof). 989 of the islands have been given names. Birds and animals including bantams, antelopes, monkeys, and lizards also live on some of the islands.

The geomorphology of Ha Long Bay is known as a drowned karst landscape due to the exceptional combination of its limestone karst features which have been subject to repeated regression and transgression of the sea over geological time. The limestones of Ha Long Bay have been eroded into a mature landscape of fengcong (clusters of conical peaks) and fenglin (isolated tower features) karst features, modified by sea invasion at a later stage.

Its waters are host to a great diversity of ecosystems including offshore coral reefs, freshwater swamp forests, mangrove forests, small freshwater lakes, and sandy beaches. The folk tale has it that the dragons descended from heaven to help locals by spitting jewels and jade to the sea, forming a natural fortress against invaders; these precious stones are represented by the lush green outcrops. Several islands boast beautiful grottos and caves with contiguous chambers, hidden ponds and peculiar stone formations. The bay is about 170 kilometers northeast of Hanoi and 3, 5 hours by road.

















SOURCE

Birds of America- Most Expensive Book in the World- 12 Images

“Birds of America“, John James Audubon’s unique sample of nature, art and craftsmanship wrapped in a beautiful album was sold at Sotheby’s last auction for the staggering price of $11.5 million, making it the most expensive book ever sold.
This is one of just 11 copies owned by private collectors.

Audubon, a 19th century French-American naturalist and painter, gathered 500 breeds of birds, all illustrated in 1,000 hand-painted life-size images, in his extraordinary book, which took 12 years to complete.

A rare book dealer from London, Bernard Shapero, explains: “His big thing was the one-to-one ratio. Everyone else cropped the birds. If an eagle is 6 foot, he was going to paint it 6 feet. He scaled back the wings, but it was life size. That was his cachet.”

The so-called “father of ornithology” would hunt down the birds, shooting them before propping them on wires to paint. Each drawing took around 60 hours to complete.

Sadly, many of the birds in his book are now extinct and exist only in his drawings and as stuffed museum exhibits.

American society wasn't very interested in his work but that didn't stop him, and his ambition got him all the way to Britain where his work gained success amongst the aristocracy.

The book is not only beautiful but also very impressive with its 3ft by 2ft pages, and although it wouldn’t fit on most bookshelves, it must be any collectors dream.
The previous record was also held by a copy of this unique album, sold in the year 2000 for $8, 8 million.

check out some of the photos from this book...........

Spiderwebs in Pakistani trees after 2010 floods- 9 Images

An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters.

Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs. People in this part of Sindh have never seen this phenonemon before – but they also report that there are now less mosquitos than they would expect, given the amoungt of stagnant, standing water that is around.

It is thought that the mosquitos are getting caught in the spider’s web thus reducing the risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for the people of Sindh, facing so many other hardships after the floods.











Floods in Pakistan July/Aug 2010

Flood damage in Sukkur in northern Sindh. Photo taken by a DFID humanitarian advisor in the region. An area equivalent to the size of England has been flooded and more than 12.5 million people are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.