Around the world in pictures ....

Wat Neramit Wipattasana is located on a hillside above the little village of Dan Sai (Loei province) and set in a manicured garden (PiP 1). This rather new temple is famous for its large ordination hall and pagoda made of red-coloured laterite, which is unlike elsewhere in Thailand. The ordination hall is surrounded by painted murals (PiP2) and columns lining the way to three golden buddhas, among them an official replica of Phra Phutthachinnarat, a revered buddha image in Phitsanulok Province.

This is the third time I have (re)posted this picture; always when the survival of Ipernity is at stake. After 2016 (takeover by IMA) and late 2020 (major technical problems) I feel the future is hanging by a thread again. If I read the team message from January 28. correctly, two crucial posts on the IMA board must be filled by 25 February. Please read the last two Club News: www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4737428 and www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4738398 Again I keep my fingers crossed. Chile - Easter Island - Ahu Tahai

White Island - New Zealand's is situated 50 km's off the coast of the Bay of Plenty near the town of Whakatane. Although some companies offer helicopter-flights over the island, I highly recommend a guided boat tour from Whakatane. It is more than worth the money. Total duration of such a tour is about 6 hours, including 2 hours visit of the volcano itself. White Island is New Zealand's most active marine volcano and steam and gas are rising continuously from its craters. The plume of smoke and gas can be seen from the mainland. It has a nearly continuous stage of smoking, at least since it was 'discovered' by James Cook in 1769, which gave White Island its name. The island has an extremely fascinating scenery and is so remote, so pure and so different from many other spots. It is almost if you are witness of the birth of the earth or walking on the moon. The bright yellow sulphurous vents, the smell of the gases and rumbling of the inner earth under our feet provide an unique experience. (The pictures were taken with a Rollei Prego 90 > scan.)

Sunset at 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York.

Uluru is considered being Australia’s best-known natural landmark. The huge ancient monolith is located in the (hot) heart of Australia’s “red centre” and is part of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is the Aboriginal and official name; it is also known as Ayers Rock, a name given in 1873 by William Gosse in honor of the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Uluru is an ancient landscape, rich in Australian indigenous culture and spirituality. The Aborigines of the area, who are known as the Anangu (traditional custodians of Uluru) believe this landscape was created by their ancestors at the beginning of time. They have been protecting these sacred lands ever since. Uluru did arise about 600 million years ago; originally the rock sat on the bottom of a sea. Nowadays the highest point is about 348 meters above ground. The rock is 3.6 km’s long, 1.9 km’s wide and has a circumference of 9.4 km’s. The surface is made up of valleys, ridges, caves and weird shapes that were created through erosion over millions of years. Surface oxidation of its iron content gives Uluru a striking orange-red hue.

Penguin chick just left its burrow for a couple of seconds, so I could take this picture from nearby. Magellan penguins live 25-30 years and always come back to the place where they were born for the mating season. They usually have one or two offsprings. Males and females take turns to watch and feed the little ones. They swim for food every eight hours and dive 30 to 35 metres deep. Couples are always the same and they come back to the colony only for the reproduction season. The Seno Otway Penguin Colony is located 65km from Punta Arenas , in the southern part of Chile and can be visited through a self guided. There is a wooded trail of about 1 ½ km with a couple of observation points. During our visit (more or less summer) it was freezing cold and very windy.

Muriwai's gannet colony at Otakamiro Point is a one of the three colonies on the mainland of New Zealand, although out to sea, the colony continues on two vertical-sided islands (Oaia - where the colony first established - and Motutara). About 1.200 pairs of Australasian gannets nest here from August to March each year. The birds return from Australia to establish contact again with their lifelong mates. The nests of the breeding colony are just centimetres apart. Each pair lays one egg and the parents take turns on the nest and strive for food by diving into the sea at up to 145 km per hour. The chicks hatch naked, but within a week they're covered with fluffy down. As they mature, they grow juvenile feathers and begin to exercise their wings in preparation for the one-shot jump off the cliff. Once airborne, the young gannets leave the colony and cross the Tasman Sea to Australia. A few years later, surviving birds return to secure a nest site at the colony.

Erg Chebbi is one of Morocco's two Saharan ergs (large seas of dunes formed by wind-blown sand). The dunes stretch about 30 kilometers from north to south and are between 5 ands 10 kilometers wide. They rise dramatically from a surrounding pancake flat of black hamada (a barren hard rocky plateau) up to a height of more than 100 meters. We visited Erg Chebbi during a camel ride (PiP 1) from our hotel to one of the dunes (PiP 2), where we were waiting in the descending sun on the play of light and shadow (PiP 3) and the constantly changing colours of the Sahara sand into a warm orange colour (main picture), which is one of the features of Erg Chebbi.

Central Park (and the northern part of Manhattan) seen from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck at Rockefeller Center.