Places

[tinyhousesgalore]

The Skyline Tiny house in Portland, Oregon built by Eric Bohne. See more here!

[drappedinvelvet]

[fitzybaby1morex]

Being from Arizona and loving modern and post modern goodies, I have to give a shout out to the amazing Shady Dell in Bisbee, AZ. A stay here is on my bucket list. From original airstream accommodations to the kitschy Dot’s Diner, this place does vintage right. A friend sent me a post card from here once and it’s still one of my favorite things. <3 Stunning photos by: youngsnowbirds.com. Their journey looked amazing!

[atlasobscura]

Eaglehawk Neck Tessellated Pavement - Eaglehawk Neck, Australia

The isthmus connecting the Tasman Peninsula to Tasmania is covered in a pattern of regular rectangular saltwater pools. Although these depressions look distinctly man made, they are in fact the result of a rare type of natural erosion.

Occurring near sea coasts on flat rock which has broken into regular blocks, the effect is known as “tessellated pavement” for its resemblance to Roman mosaic floors (also called tessellated pavement). The pavement takes two forms. Depressions are known as pan formations, occurring when saltwater wears away the center portion of the stones into pools. The opposite effect is known as a loaf formation, when the edges of the stone are worn away leaving a rounded crown resembling rising bread.

Tessellated pavement is extremely rare, found only in a few places on Earth.

Geek out on the geology of Eaglehawk Neck Tessellated Pavement on Atlas Obscura…

[postcardtravelguide]

Tasmanian Wilderness

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/181

[unesco]

Stromatolites formed by colonies of algae in Shark Bay, Western Australia, Australia

[photorator]

Purnululu National Park Australia

[pretendingtotravel]

Purnululu National Park is a national park in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Purnululu is the name given to the sandstone area of the Bungle Bungle Range by the Kija Aboriginal people. The name means sandstone or may be a cordon of bundle grass. The range, lying fully within the park, has elevations as high as 578 metres above sea level. It is famous for the sandstone domes, unusual and visually striking with their striping in alternating orange and grey bands. The banding of the domes is due to differences in clay content and porosity of the sandstone layers: the orange bands consist of oxidised iron compounds in layers that dry out too quickly for cyanobacteria to multiply; the grey bands are composed of cyanobacteria growing on the surface of layers of sandstone where moisture accumulates.

[atlasobscura]

Gippsland Lakes - Australia

The conditions were rare, and they were perfect. Starting with a series of bush fires in 2006, followed by torrential rains in 2007, by 2008 massive amounts of ash and nitrogen rich soul was washed into the Gippsand Lake in Southeast Australia. While this would have normally resulted in a bloom of bacteria, because of the scale of the fires and the flood, that year something unusual happened.

A massive algae bloom of Noctiluca Scintillans, visible as murky red patches during the day, appeared replacing the more usual normal green Synechococcus. But the Noctiluca Scintillans had another trick up its sleeve: at night it glowed.

In the summer of 2008 and 2009 the shores of the Gippsland Lakes glowed a faint blue at night as the bacteria were agitated by movement in the water. Anyone taking a skinny dip at night would find the water glowing spectacularly around them. 

Gippsland Lake Bioluminescence | Atlas Obscura

(Photos Copyright: Copyright Phil Hart under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License)

[sharen-s]

William Ricketts Sanctuary

[pretendingtotravel]

Mount Dandenong, Australia

William Ricketts Sanctuary

A collection of outdoor mystical statues paying homage to Aborigines and ecological stewardship

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/william-ricketts-sanctuary

[pretendingtotravel]

Putty, Australia

Newnes Glow Worm Tunnel

Once the path of a railway tunnel, now home to thousands of glowing insects

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/newnes-glow-worm-tunnel

[postcardtravelguide]

The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million ha of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forest. The site, comprised of eight protected areas, is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent. Ninety-one eucalypt taxa occur within the Greater Blue Mountains Area which is also outstanding for its exceptional expression of the structural and ecological diversity of the eucalypts associated with its wide range of habitats. The site provides significant representation of Australia’s biodiversity with ten percent of the vascular flora as well as significant numbers of rare or threatened species, including endemic and evolutionary relict species, such as the Wollemi pine, which have persisted in highly-restricted microsites. from UNESCO site

[postcardtravelguide]

Willandra Lakes Region

The fossil remains of a series of lakes and sand formations that date from the Pleistocene can be found in this region, together with archaeological evidence of human occupation dating from 45–60,000 years ago. It is a unique landmark in the study of human evolution on the Australian continent. Several well-preserved fossils of giant marsupials have also been found here. from UNESCO site

[outstandingplaces]

Fraser Island, Australia - Sand Dune In The Heart of the jungle on Fraser Island. (outstandingplaces.com)

[elmiee]

[postcardtravelguide]

Wet Tropics of Queensland

This area, which stretches along the north-east coast of Australia for some 450 km, is made up largely of tropical rainforests. This biotope offers a particularly extensive and varied array of plants, as well as marsupials and singing birds, along with other rare and endangered animals and plant species. from UNESCO site

[therabbitblack]

Gondwana Rainforest in the mountains at home

[pretendingtotravel]

The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia formerly known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, are the most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world.The reserve includes 50 separate reserves totalling 3,665 square km, clustered around the New South Wales – Queensland border. The Gondwana Rainforests are so-named because the fossil record indicates that when Gondwana existed it was covered by rainforests containing the same kinds of species that are living today. Not all Gondwanan rainforests in Australia are located in the New South Wales- Queensland region; the largest Gondwanan rainforest in Australia is located in Tasmania’s Tarkine wilderness. The number of visitors to the Gondwana rainforest reserves in New South Wales and Queensland is about 2 million per year. (Wikipedia)

[outstandingplaces]

Uluru, Australia - Uluru, Also known as Ayers Rock. Uluru is one of the most recognisable natural landmarks in Australia. The sandstone formation stands 348 metres high with nothing than a flat landscape surrounding the rock. Uluru is special for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset. (outstandingplaces.com)