Tag Archives: landscape

The town of Munnar, in Kerala, South India, was once a popular summer resort for members of the British Raj. Sitting high (1,600 metres – 5,200 feet) in the Western Ghats, this hill station offered cooler summer temperatures than those in the hot and humid coastal cities. Tea plantations were established here in the late […]

View full post »

We were in the waters of the fabled Spice Islands of Indonesia. Today, this archipelago is home to countless islands covered in thick rainforests. The landscape is scarred by years of volcanic eruptions and the underwater-scape comprises stunningly pristine coral reefs populated by every colour fish you can think of. The Banda Islands are not […]

View full post »

Finally! The day dawned clear, and while the mists cloaked the distant mountains, the extensive green hills covered in tea bushes and silver oak trees that surrounded my ‘resort’ had at long-last come into view. I had booked myself in for a week’s stay above Munnar, a town in the Western Ghats in India’s southern […]

View full post »

Like the changing of the year, the transition of the seasons makes for a good time to reflect: to sweep out the old and make way for new growth. That thought led me to dig out some old autumn photos from the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah , in NSW Australia. One of the sites […]

View full post »

The best way to visit the Maluku’s (Malakas, Moluccas) in the eastern part of Indonesia is by ship. These were once known as the Spice Islands. The nutmeg, mace, and cloves that grew here – and nowhere else – attracted the attention of 16th century European colonial powers. The Spice Wars of the 1500s were […]

View full post »