Gallery Pick of the Week
Instead of just showing pretty pictures only, here we have space for contributors to discuss their images every week.
This is a great opportunity to get some insight from the original photographer and the content is entirely open. It could be anything from the personal feeling of the photographer about the image to any photographic techniques or location knowledge he/she would like to share with our visitors.
Gallery Pick of the Week > August 2010
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The Largest Island of Australia, 26/8/10, Pele Leung When the last ice age ended and the sea levels rose, this piece of southern land was separated from the rest of Australia. As a consequence, it became an island. |
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In the darkness for 340 million years, 19/8/10, Pele Leung It was a quiet space and the only sound came from the dripping water from ceiling. It was a dark space as light was blocked completely from outside. Without light, life was limited in this space. |
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One Dream One Goal, 12/8/10, Pele Leung A little boy was walking on the deserted beach with his head down and his only goal was to discover his beach treasure - those white and pearl shinning things and each one had its own story of life. Shells. |
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Life is Beautiful, 5/8/10, Pele Leung Just look around and think about the design of this wonderful world. Perhaps this can easily be explained by picking up a leaf and studying its structure. The design of a simple leaf is actually quite complex. |
Pele Leung - The Largest Island of Australia, 26/8/10, Pele Leung
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park
It was freezing and glaciers were everywhere. The southern state of Australia was still connected to the main land by a land bridge as the sea levels were low. When the last ice age ended and the sea levels rose, this piece of southern land was separated from the rest of Australia. As a consequence, it became an island. As this island was seriously scraped by the glaciers, the terrain left behind is rugged. Compared to the main land, this island is a paradise for mountain adventurers and hikers. This island was called Van Diemen's Land during the early white settlement era and it is now called Tasmania.
As the western side of Tasmania is extremely rugged, most settlements are situated at the two largest cities, Hobart and Launceston, and the flat land between them.
Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain
In terms of scenery, the eastern coast has the best weather and coastal features. There are a lot of small resort towns along the eastern coast and one of the most famous towns is Coles Bay as it is the hub of the Freycinet National Park. The jewel of Freycinet is the Wineglass Bay, a beautiful beach with crystal clear water in the shape of a wine glass. For the western side of the island, the rugged mountains provide a good barrier for most human cultivation and destruction so a wilderness type of scenery can be preserved.
If you plan to visit Tasmania and would like to have some advice, the following list can be a guide for the best features on the Island State.
- Best Market: Salamanca Market, Hobart
- Best Historical Tour: Port Arthur
- Best City Lookout: Mount Wellington in Hobart
- Best Tulip Farm: Wynyard (seasonal)
- Best Gardens: Culzean Gardens, Westbury
- Best Nature Cruise: Franklin-Gordon River from Strahan
- Best Scenic Flight: South-West National Park departing from Hobart
- Best Mountain Drive: The drive up Jacobs Ladder, Ben Lomond
- Best Wine Region: Tamar Valley (one of the best)
- Best Bird Watching: Bruny Island Neck and Mt William National Park
- Best National Park: The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
- Best Overnight Hiking Track: The Overland Track in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
- Best Gorge: Cataract Gorge, Launceston
- Best Sand Dune: Henty Dunes near Strahan
- Best Underground Caves: Mole Creek Karst National Park
- Best Bay(s): Wineglass Bay and Bay of Fires
- Best Waterfalls: Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park
Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park
Port Arthur Historic Site
Jacobs Ladder, Ben Lomond
Pele Leung - In the darkness for 340 million years, 19/8/10, Pele Leung
It was a quiet space and the only sound came from the dripping water from ceiling. It was a dark space as light was blocked completely from outside. Without light, life was limited in this space. Apart from the dripping water, there was nothing moved for several million years. This sealed place had survived from some serious earthquakes happened nearby in the last few million years.
A dead wombat in the Lucas Cave
Some animal intruders occasionally had entered this space and they were trapped there forever. Time was almost meaningless here until the first human being entered this mysterious location since its formation 340 million years ago. Then the silence had been broken since its first discovery in 1848. Now hundreds of tourists enter this ancient enclosure every single day. This beautiful underground treasure near Blue Mountains NSW is called Jenolan Caves.
The World Heritage listed Jenolan Caves is only an hour drive from Katoomba, the central hub of the Blue Mountains area. Obviously Jenolan Caves is not a single cave and more than 400 caves have been discovered so far. There could be more isolated caves hidden somewhere to be uncovered.
The Broken Column in the Lucas Cave
If you think large means best, Lucas Cave is the one. Inside you will find the Cathedral Chamber, one of the widest and highest at Jenolan. With the advantage of such a large open space underground, attending a concert held in Lucas will be one of the best rewards during your cave tours. The beauty does not stop at the largest cave and the massive fin look structures in the Orient Cave also excite many visitors. If you think water is one of the best cave companions, the River Cave and the Pool of Cerberus Cave will be two of the best wet caves Jenolan can offer.
The beautiful Orient Cave
The River Cave
As one of the best caves in Australia, The tour prices of Jenolan Caves are very reasonable. If time permitted, try to include as many caves in your itinerary if you can. Having said that, some cave tours are quite demanding in physical fitness. If you really want to take many cave tours during your visit, perhaps you could consider staying there overnight. You do not have to go far to find your accommodation as Jenolan provides all you require.
Pele Leung - One Dream One Goal, 12/8/10, Pele Leung
The Shell Beach, Shark Bay, Western Australia
A little boy was walking on the deserted beach with his head down and his only goal was to discover his beach treasure - those white and pearl shinning things and each one had its own story of life. Shells. The boy was very focused on his searching as if the only purpose of his life was to collect shells.
He had already got a few drawers at home filled with all these beautiful shells coming with all sorts of sizes, shapes and colours. He had been chasing his dream shells for a few good years but interesting pieces seemed to be still hidden somewhere and they were just waiting for him to discover and collect.
It was an immense beach so walking from one end to another would already take forever. Needless to say, founding a good shell would really take some time. In a lucky day, he probably could collect a few that were worth keeping. He just could not predict what his day would be when he first set his foot on the beach for a new day. Although he had learned quickly of how to speed up his searching process, there was still no guarantee whether there would be any fruitful reward at the end of each day. This was life - no guarantee - he knew it. The shell passion behind him was the only driving force and his fire of desire had never extinguished. At least not now when his mind was just completely occupied by the shell dream.
The boy had a secret plan in his mind for a long while. At some stage, he would organise an exhibition of his shell collection but this was not the only plan. He thought his collection would be useful for all sorts of interior decoration and perhaps this could be a 'business' itself. Strictly speaking, he did not know much what business actually was and had no idea of how to run it. All he got in mind was to use the small potential income to buy more empty shelves to keep his newly founded shell treasures. He had already spent a lot of effort in his shell business but just did not know what were waiting for him at the end of the beach.
He had briefed his childish business plan to his parents a few times but they seemed to have some difficulties to understand it. They had never taken his plan seriously and instead they suggested to him that taking the lawn mowing work from their neighbours would have been a better way if his plan was to earn some pocket money. He thought about the suggestion and decided to skip it because the lawn mowing job would take too much of his spare time and leave no room for him to run his shell business.
A road to nowhere. Kangaroo Island, South Australia
He likes to discuss his secret plan with his uncle, a landscape photographer because they seemed to share the same dream and interest - collecting treasures from nature. He would also like to show off his newly added shell collection every time when his uncle came for a visit. As a return, his uncle always shared his freshly captured photos, taken in the middle of nowhere, with him. They enjoyed their companionship tremendously because it really was not easy to find someone who could share their unreal dreams and goals together.
Are you the little boy or his uncle? Do you have a dream waiting for you to fulfill? A dream could be small now but it could be a huge achievement if we take it seriously as a goal of ours. Think it, dream it, and make it happen. I wish your dream come true and hope you do the same for me.
Pele Leung - Life is Beautiful, 5/8/10, Pele Leung
After thousands of years, the Great Wall of China and the Egyptian's Pyramids are still standing. There is no doubt that these magnificent architectures represent the great history of mankind. Their complexity and the construction effort required are just beyond our imagination even in today's standard. In the 21st century, we are nearly ready to travel outside the solar system. Sometimes we believe that there is almost nothing we cannot do! Can you imagine how clever we are!
However, if you look further afield, our knowledge and technologies are actually quite primitive. Don't believe me? Just look around and think about the design of this wonderful world. Perhaps this can be explained easily by picking up a leaf and studying its structure. The design of a simple leaf is actually quite complex. There is no engine required so it does not need petrol (thank God). The sun and water power the complex engineering of plant and the design of leaves is just a small part of the whole plan. The whole thing grows according to the blueprint kept in a genetic database stored somewhere. The design even includes some contingency plans in case the environment does not behave normally. Amazing.
Stop! This is not an article written on behalf of Vatican or any other religious parties. Moreover, we do not have any intention to worship any physical matters or bodies like what our ancestors did - Apollo is a good example.
Arguably the design of this simple plant life has already exceeded all our civilisation accumulated from day one. And plants and leaves are only two of many simple natural things around us. Think about the design of our planet Earth and the space beyond! It is not hard to realise that we live in an almost perfect and well planned world. Life-is-beautiful is properly quite an appropriate expression to describe our world.
Don't rush to email and tell us how many natural disasters are still happening every day as we are not that ignorant. Believe it or not, absolute perfect world does not exist except in our hearts. Regardless of all those disasters, we should all celebrate for at least many people on Earth are still living in a relatively luxury condition. Still, we believe life-is-beautiful is an appropriate way to describe our world.
Take a walk when you have a bad time and have a look of all walks of life around you - from an ant, a plant to all strangers around you. Are they happy? Being alive is already a miracle and what you can ask for more. So life is beautiful and you have already got the best in your hands.