Category Archives: Nature I lived within easy reach of Australia’s Blue Mountains for many years, and while I’d take visitors up there regularly for day-trips and hikes, I guess I rather took them for granted. I knew some of the stories of the hardships the early explorers (Blaxland, Wentworth, Lawson, and their unnamed servants) faced trying to find a […]  Once upon a time, a giant took a large rock and threw it away. The rock made a great hole where it landed. When the giant looked around, he saw a white surface, and he exclaimed: “Look, a white lake!” This exclamation is quite literally the meaning of the Mongolian name for Great White Lake: Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur. The real […]  The rugged San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California are known for their outdoor activities: mountain biking, rock climbing, horse riding… These days, I’m usually happy with a gentle hike. Only two hours out of Los Angeles – but a world away – the charming year-round resort city of Big Bear Lake sits high in the San Bernardinos. There are hiking and biking tracks radiating in all […]  The New Year’s period is a time when we can look back over the recent past and start to make plans for the coming 12 months. As regular visitors to these pages know, I usually escape to the mountains during this time, preferring some quiet contemplation over the noisy drunken revelry that is more common in the […]  Whatever else one might say about the US, driving there is a pleasure. Whether you are speeding along the main highways, or winding down the back roads, you’ll find things well signposted – and the many National Parks and other places of interest are easily accessible. My husband and I have covered a lot of territory across the US in […] |
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