Cape town

What is more beautiful about a city is the variety of people of it but not the huge buildings or clean roads. Cape Town in South Africa is such a city with other beauties like its harbour and many multi cultural people. Cape Town serves as the provincial capital and seat of National Parliament. It is only second to Johannesburg in population but largest in size in South Africa. In earlier times Cape Town was the way station of Dutch East India Company which monitored ships. Origins of native people of Cape Town is believed to be from Indonesia and Madagascar due to slave labour immigrants at that time. 

Cape Town is part of Cape Peninsula accompanied by Table Mountain, Devil's Peak and Lion's Head. It has a typical Mediterranean climate with warm summers and winters and Cape Town shares striking similarities in weather with San Francisco. It is with great pleasure that is to say Cape Town has one of the highest levels of Biodiversity in the world. Which is to determine that it has many verities of flora and fauna and it is located in a CI Biodiversity Hotspot. Among many there are 19 different vegetation types and few are endemic. There are about hundreds of species and a lot of them are indigenous too. But at the same time it has become the world's number one area with largest number of threatened species. This is because of the rapid growth of population and urbanization that results in loss of the forest areas and grasslands. However most of the threatened species are protected in national parks and sanctuaries.

Cape Town has other interesting values too. Naturally tourists are attracted to Cape Town because of its good weather, developed infrastructure and beauty of course. Cape Town's main attraction is Table Mountain and Table Mountain National Park. Chapman's Peak Drive, Signal Hill, Cape Town beaches, Surfing and boating, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town Harbour, Robben Island, Cape of Good Hope etc include other attractions. Over all it is to say that every inch of this city has a different experience to provide to its visitors.

Travellers' Guide

A good vacation in Cape Town is not complete without a good stay. Here are some of the best hotel deals you can get in Cape Town. Don't forget that you can enjoy sun bathing and wild life in the same place so get prepared for the adventure.

2Inn1 Kensington
21 Kensington Crescent | Oranjezicht, Cape Town Central 8001, South Africa
+27 (0)21 4231707
Blackheath Lodge 
6 Blackheath Road | Sea Point, Cape Town Central 8005, South Africa
+27214392541
Derwent House Boutique Hotel
14 Derwent Road | Tamboerskloof, Cape Town Central 8001, South Africa
Four Rosmead 
4 Rosmead Avenue, Cape Town, 8001 | Oranjezicht, Cape Town Central 8001, South Africa
+270214803810
An African Villa
19 Carstens St. | Tamboerskloof, Cape Town Central 0881, South Africa
+27 214232162
Kensington Place  
38 Kensington Crescent | Higgovale, Cape Town Central 8001, South Africa
+27 (0)214244744
Cape Grace
West Quay Rd, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town Central 8002, South Africa
0027 21 410 7100

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Plitvice Lakes National Park

Founded in the Southeast Europe, Croatia, Plitvice Lakes National Park is the largest in the country extending over 296.85 square kilometers. It was founded in 1949 in the mountainous karst area at the border to Bosnia Herzegovina. The name Plitvice was designated due to the natural occurrence of lakes. Currently there are 16 lakes which are grouped into the 12 Upper Lakes and the four Lower Lakes. There have been shallow basins which were eventually filled with water constantly changing the limestone and landscape of the area. The travertine barriers decelerated and retained the flowing water. 

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Komodo Island

Komodo is one of the islands of Indonesia that lies between the neighboring islands, Sumbawa to the west and Flores to the east with an area of 390  km². Island is home for descendants of former convicts who were exiled to the island. Given the name Komodo to this island, it is world famous because of the world's largest lizard Komodo dragon is found roaming here and other small neighboring islands. Apart from this beast, Komodo Island also has a pink beach which is supposed to be one of the seven pink beaches of the world. The beauty of the Komodo Island is not the only fact that attracts tourists but it is a polular diving station. Also Komodo Island was considered in the new seven wonders of the world since 11th Nov. 2011.

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Rocky Mountains

   Spread over western North America, the Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,830 km from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. This mountain range must have been formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago by the Laramide orogeny. Since then, erosion by water and glaciers has sculpted the mountain range into dramatic valleys and peaks. At the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. Today much of the mountain range is protected but still it is a popular tourist destination mainly for hiking, camping, mountaineering, fishing, and hunting, skiing, and snowboarding.

Before the mountains were raised by tectonic forces, the rocks in the Rocky Mountains were formed. The oldest rock is Precambrian metamorphic rock that forms the core of the North American continent. There is also Precambrian sedimentary argillite, dating back to 1.7 billion years ago. In the southern Rocky Mountains, near present-day Colorado, these ancestral rocks were disturbed by mountain building approximately 300Ma, during the Pennsylvanian. This mountain building produced the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. They consisted largely of Precambrian metamorphic rock forced upward through layers of the limestone laid down in the shallow sea. The mountains eroded throughout the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, leaving extensive deposits of sedimentary rock.

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Andes

   Spreading across countries Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. In length wise, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about 7,000 km long, about 200 km to 700 km wide and of an average height of about 4,000 m. Its highest peak, Mt. Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,962 m above sea level. The peak of Mt. Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the centre of the Earth than any other location on the Earth's surface. This is because of the equatorial bulge that results from the Earth's rotation. The world's highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina frontier which rises to 6,893 m  and over 50 other volcanoes that rise above 6,000 m.

The Andes can be divided into three sections as the Southern Andes in Argentina and Chile, the Central Andes including the Chilean and Peruvian cordilleras and parts of Bolivia and the Northern Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador that consists of two parallel ranges, the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. In Colombia, north of its the border with Ecuador, the Andes split in three parallel ranges, the western, central, and eastern ranges. The eastern range of Colombia is the only one that extends to Venezuela. In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is often considered to be part of the Andes.

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Yellowstone National Park

    This is a national park located in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, and is very well famous for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is dominant. It is believed Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years. The region was bypassed during the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early 19th century.

The Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), with features like lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining, nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous mega fauna location in the Continental United States.

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Carlsbad Caverns National Park

 It is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. The park consist of the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns where people who come to visit the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance, or take the elevator (the exit for everyone) directly to the Underground Lunchroom some 750 feet (230 m) below. The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District. Approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat. Carlsbad Caverns consist of a large cave chamber, the Big Room, a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 350 feet (110 m) high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber in North America and the seventh largest in the world. The largest in the world is the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia.

From a young age, Jim White explored the caverns with his homemade wire ladder. When he grew older, most people did not even believe such caves existed. He gave many of the rooms their names, including the Big Room, New Mexico Room, King's Palace, Queen's Chamber, Papoose Room, and Green Lake Room. He also named many of the cave's more prominent formations, such as the Totem Pole, Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit, Fairyland, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun, and Rock of Ages.

The town of Carlsbad, which lends its name to the Caverns and National Park, is in turn named after the Czech town formerly known by the German name Karlsbad and now known by the Czech name Karlovy Vary, both of which mean "Charles' Bath." Until 1932, visitors to the cavern had to walk down a switch back ramp-sidewalk that took them 750 feet below the surface. The walk back up was hard on a lot of visitors. In 1932 the National Park opened up a large visitor center building that contained two elevators that would take visitors to the caverns below. The new center included a cafeteria, waiting room, museum and first aid area. 

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Galápagos Islands

    They are an archipelago of volcanic islands scattered around the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Part of continental Ecuador lying 972 km (525 nmi) west of it, Galapagos Islands are geologically young and home for various number of endemic species.  Observations on these species lead to the rise of theories like the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The exact location is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km (525 nmi; 605 mi) off the west coast of South America. The closest is the mainland of Ecuador to the east, to the north is Cocos Island at 720 km (389 nmi; 447 mi) and to the south is Easter Island and San Felix Island at 3,200 km (1,730 nmi; 1,990 mi).

The Galápagos Archipelago consists of 7,880 km2 (3,040 sq mi) of land spread over 45,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) of ocean. The largest of the islands, Isabela, measures 4,640 km2 (1,790 sq mi) and makes up half of the total land area of the Galápagos. Volcán Wolf on Isabela is the highest point, with an elevation of 1,707 m (5,600 ft) above sea level. The island chain consists of 15 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The archipelago is located on the Nazca tectonic plate, which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches per year. It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 million and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009, where lava from the volcanic island Fernandina started flowing both towards the island's shoreline and into the centre caldera.

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Victoria Falls… The Smoke That Thunders….

Located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe, this beautiful waterfall is also the known to be the largest in the world. This was found by a Scottish explorer; David Livingstone who gave the name for this falls in honour of his queen. However, the indigenous name of this waterfall is 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' — literally meaning the 'Smoke that Thunders'. While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is claimed to be the largest. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 metres (5,604 ft) and height of 108 metres (354 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Victoria Falls and the adjoining parklands were collectively designated a World Heritage site in 1989.

The falls are formed as the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm 1708 meters (5604 ft) wide, carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the basalt plateau. The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from 80 metres (260 ft) at its western end to 108 metres (354 ft) in the centre. The only outlet to the First Gorge is a 110 metres (360 ft) wide gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western end, through which the whole volume of the river pours into the Victoria Falls gorges. There are two islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to divide the curtain of water even at full flood: Boaruka Island (or Cataract Island) near the western bank, and Livingstone Island near the middle — the place that David Livingstone first saw the falls from in Zambia. At less than full flood, additional islets divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams. The main streams are named, in order from Zimbabwe (west) to Zambia (east): Devil's Cataract (called Leaping Water by some), Main Falls, Rainbow Falls (the highest) and the Eastern Cataract.

At full moon, a "moonbow" can be seen in the spray instead of the usual daylight rainbow. During the flood season, however, it is impossible to see the foot of the falls and most of its face, and the walks along the cliff opposite it are in a constant shower and shrouded in mist. Close to the edge of the cliff, spray shoots upward like inverted rain, especially at Zambia's Knife-Edge Bridge. As the dry season takes effect, the islets on the crest become wider and more numerous, and in September to January up to half of the rocky face of the falls may become dry and the bottom of the First Gorge can be seen along most of its length. At this time it becomes possible to walk across some stretches of the river at the crest. It is also possible to walk to the bottom of the First Gorge at the Zimbabwean side. The minimum flow, which occurs in November, is around a tenth of the April figure; this variation in flow is greater than that of other major falls, and causes Victoria Falls' annual average flow rate to be lower than might be expected based on the maximum flow.

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Serengeti National Park

The name “Serengeti” is from Maasai language standing for the meaning- extended place or endless plains. Most famous for its annual migration of over one and a half million white bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 250,000 zebra, Serengeti National Park is widely regarded as the best wildlife reserve in Tanzania, Africa due to its density of predators and prey. Yet even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle. The National Park, with an area of 12,950 square kilometres, is as big as Northern Ireland, but its ecosystem, which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maswa Game Reserve and the Maasai Mara Game reserve (in Kenya), is roughly the size of Kuwait. It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east. As such, it offers the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth.
The Park is divided into three parts as Serengeti Plains, Western Corridor and Northern Serengeti. Serengeti plains: the endless, almost treeless grassland of the south is the most emblematic scenery of the park. This is where the wildebeest breed, as they remain in the plains from December to May. Other hoofed animals- zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, waterbuck- also occur in huge numbers during the wet season. Kopjes are granite florations which are very common in the region, and they are great observation posts for predators, as well as a refuge for hyrax and pythons. Western corridor: the "black cotton" (actually black clay) soil covers the swampy savannah of this region. Grumeti River is home to enormous Nile crocodiles, colobus monkey, and the martial eagle. The migration passes through from May to July. Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands (predominantly Commiphora) and hills, ranging from Seronera in the South, to the Mara river in the limit with Kenya. Apart from the migratory wildebeest and zebra (which occur from July to August, and in November), the bushy savannah is the best place to find elephant, giraffe and dik dik.

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Amazon Rainforest

Spreading far and wide over the soils of Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname, sheltering an area of 5,500,000 km² (2,123,562 sq mi) is the world’s largest tropical rain forest with many species of wildlife and some of them are undiscovered up to date. It was even listed to be voted in the new seven wonder of Nature in 2009. Not only as a rainforest untouched but because of its variation in flora and fauna plus the climate and its vastness, it beholds a very important place among most beautiful places found on Earth. Not to forget though this is a living laboratory, a rich reserve of Carbon and a store house of Oxygen and it’s our top priority to protect it.

It is believed that the name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with a tribe of Tapuyas and other tribes from South America. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men, as was the custom among the entire tribe. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the ancient Amazons of Asia and Africa described by Herodotus and Diodorus in Greek legends.

Rainforest must have been formed during the Eocene. It must have formed following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when Atlantic Ocean expanded sufficiently to provide warm and moist climate to the Amazon basin. Since its formation it must have been existed the way it is for about 55 million years mostly free of Savannah type biomes. When the climate became drier the Savannah spread widely.

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