Kinderdijk is situated in a polder (The Dutch term for land which has been reclaimed from the sea, lakes, or river deltas. The land is bounded by a dike, is drained, and is maintained by pumping.) at the the Lek and Noord rivers.

The Alblasserwaard polders are situated below sea level so these windmills were built to drain the excess water, this water is sluiced into the river Lek. These mills are the biggest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.

These dutch windmills are possibly the best known tourist site within the Netherlands are were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1997.

It was really interesting to have a look around the inside of one of these old windmills, they are much bigger inside than they appear. However I’m pretty sure they didn’t have plasma screens in back in the 16th Century. We had a little boat ride up the polder to look at the windmills… they were great but once you’ve seen one windmill you’ve seen them all.

Uluru is situated in the centre of Australia within the Northern Territory. This is now a World Heritage Area for both its cultural and natural values. The National Park is named Uluru-Kata Tjuta, and is about 270 miles southwest of Alice Springs.

Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginals, contrary to popular belief it has no actual meaning. It is actually named after an Aboriginal family from many years back.

It was discovered in 1872 (well by a non-indigenous person) by Ernest Giles, he never actually got close to it as what stopped by the Lake Amadeus. But a year later William Gosse visited the rock and called it “Ayres Rock” after Sir Henry Ayers who was the Chief Secretary of South Australia.

Uluru used to be known as a monolith rock and is 346 metres high, over 5 miles in diameter with a hard exterior which is unusual to other large rocks. Because of this it has prevented formation of scree slopes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scree which has given it it’s unusual steep sides.

It used to be thought and was listed as the world’s largest monolith. However this is misleading as Uluru is actually part of a massive underground rock formation which includes The Olgas. (This rock formation is often mistakenly thought to incorporate Mount Conner, which is actually a different rock formation altogether).

But little to worry Australia still hosts the world’s largest monolith… Mt Augustus! Which is in Western Australia and is around 2.5 times the size of Uluru and is about 850m high!

Uluru looks amazing at sunrise as is famously known for appearing to change colour. It’s made from sandstone but is full of minerals like iron and feldspar. It’s the oxidisation of the iron that gives Uluru the rusty red colour. And the feldspar reflects the red light of the sun when rising or setting which appear to make it sort of glow.

The Aboriginals do not climb Uluru due to its spiritual significance. They also do not like visitors climbing it either, this is mainly due to the fact that the route crosses a sacred traditional “dreaming track”, secondly they feel a sense of responsibility for the visitors on their land to be safe. However climbing Ayres Rock is still very popular whether right or wrong. It was much harder than I had imagined to climb to the top and took me about 45 minutes at a fast pace. Believe me this is not for the faint hearted! There have been at least 40 recorded deaths from falls and heart attacks. So please be very careful if you decide to climb. For me personally the spectacular view from the top of Yulara was most worthy of the climb.

Ayer’s Rock, Uluru – Travel Photos

Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay is one of the most ancient vistas on our planet it is known as the Pilbara region of Australia. Our earliest ancestors still survive here etched into the rocks around 3.5 billion years old as stromatolites.

The reason they are able to survive here is the water is actually twice as salty as normal sea water which makes it inhospitable to many other living things.

The stromatolites are so important that it made Shark Bay a World Heritage area.
The stromatolites are too small to be seen, but appear as rocky lumps scattered over the beach, they are actually built by tiny organisms using sediment and other organic matter. Within these rocks there is a massive community of them which are thought to have 3,000 million m²! They can build stromatolites up to 10 million times their own size (1.5m, but 10 million sounds better). A 1m stromatolites is about 2000 years old.

They are very boring to look at, and just look like dark rocks around the beach, but its amazing to think how old these things are and what they must have seen in their lifetimes! There are walkways which you can walk along to stop any damage to them, but unfortunately there always seems to be someone who has to think otherwise.

Whilst you’re here you should also visit Hamelin Pool telegraph station where you will get a private tour of the museum. Its very interesting, especially to hear about all the damage which was done to the lines by the aboriginals to make tools for hunting.

Shell Beach is just off the Hamelin Road at Hamelin Pools, its about an hours drive from Denham. Shell beach is made from billions of tiny shells and is one of only two in the world. It is about 65 miles long and around 10m deep.

A large number of buildings around this area were built using bricks cut out from the beach. This is a photo of a typical quarry which had been excavated.

Well this may have not been the most interesting part of my travelling nor maybe the most interesting thing to read on my travel blog… but it was nice to finally meet my oldest ancestors

Stromatolites, Hamelin Pool – Travel Photos

Well actually the whole island is a sand dune so to speak. It’s the biggest sand island in the world about 260m high. Being made completely from sand Fraser Island actually moves 1-2m a year!

Fraser Island if I remember correctly is known by the Aboriginals as K’Gari which means paradise and was inscripted by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992.

Fraser Island is easy to get to and is only a couple of hours drive from Brisbane you can hire out 4x4s out there, but heard many horror stories about cars getting stuck and arguments from hell. Hence decided to take a Fraser Island tour with Dingos which was excellent, no sleeping bags, no cooking, no tents and no driving, just relaxing and downing some VB and the best part of this you dont get your food eaten by dingos!

Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island – Travel Photos

It was inscripted by UNESCO in 1998 as a world heritage centre and the following is taken from their site;

Justification for Inscription
Criterion i: The Summer Palace in Beijing is an outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape garden design, incorporating the works of humankind and nature in a harmonious whole. Criterion ii: The Summer Palace epitomizes the philosophy and practice of Chinese garden design, which played a key role in the development of this cultural form throughout the East. Criterion iii: The imperial Chinese garden, illustrated by the Summer Palace, is a potent symbol of one of the major world civilizations.

The Summer Palace is approximately 20 km north west of Beijing and covers an area of around 3 km (290 hectares) and has over 3,000 individual buildings. The main parts of the Summer Palace are “Longevity Hill”, “Kunming lake” and “The Long Corridor”.

Longevity Hill has all the best buildings to look at. “The Cloud-Dispelling Hall”, “Temple of Buddhist Virtue” and the “Sea of Wisdom Temple” are all located here.

And perhaps the biggest man made lake ive seen is “Kunming Lake”. Well it started as a natural lake around 3,500 years ago and takes up about ¾s of the total area. You can also take boat trips around the lake and if its cold enough you can go ice skating. Belive me its hard to imagein as when I was here it was 40 degrees!

The last of the main attractions so to speak is the Long Corridor. It is about 250 m long and is parrallel to Kunning lake. This is also the longest path in the garden and has nearly 15000 Chinese paintings!

Be careful when leaving the Summer Palace as there are TWO exits. Or two entrances depending on how you look at it The exits are the East Palace Gate and the North Palace Gate. I think most people seemed to enter from the East gate.

The Summer Palace, Beijing, Travel Photos