Skip to main content

HISTORY OF BIG SUR COAST

  A new dawn:              Locals had long called for a road along the coast to aid shipwreck victims and improve access to isolated communities.  Construction started in 1919, and 18 years, 32 tonnes of dynamite and 33 bridges later, the Big Sur stretch of California Highway One was complete.               The implausible route, with its myriad twists and turns and dramatic drop-offs, became an instant classic.  The author and painter Henry Miller fled to Big Sur in 1944 and stayed for nearly two decades.  Photographer Edward Weston and Beat Generation bard Jack Kerouac fell under its spell.  By the late 1960’s San Francisco’s counterculture revolution had swept down to Big Sur, and the likes of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed on the cliff tops.              ...
Post a Comment

LAKE BAIKAL

 Wild Weather:

Lake Baikal


            Summers at the lake are relatively short.  The warmest month is August, when the air temperature reaches 18C (64F) on the lake and 25C (77F) on the surrounding land.  It stays warm in September.  In early summer and late autumn, fogs are frequent.

            High winds lash the lakeshore during autumn – at this time of year there are, on average, an incredible 18 storms a month.  The winds blow form different directions, each with a distinct character and local name.  The shelonnik blows from the southeast, the verkhovik form the northeast.  As the verkhovik wind strengthens, the water turns almost black, with white-capped waves that push towards the southern shore.  The kultuk blows form the southwest, accompanied by grey, leaden skies and low cloud.  The barguzin howls down the valley of the Barguzin River on the east side of the lake; the sarma  from the Sarma River flowing in from the west, can reach hurricane strength.  The equally ferocious gornaya appears suddenly, causing 6m (20ft) high waves to break on the cliffs along the eastern shore.  Clearly, Lake Baikal can be a stormy place.  Even so, on average there are 2,277 hours of sunshine each year similar to Melbourne, Australia, and parts of the Bordeaux region in France.  The driest and sunniest place is Zagli Bay at the southern end of Olkhon Island, the largest of Lake Baikal’s 27 islands.

              In winter the lake is transformed into a white wonderland.  Mists rise from the surface in December and the surrounding vegetation is covered with hoar frost.  By late January the surface water is frozen solid to a depth of about a metre (3ft), and the air temperature can drop to -27C (-17F), even plunging to -39C (-38F) in the surrounding countryside.  The ice is unusually clear, so in the shallows you can still see right through to the bottom of the lake.  As dusk approaches, the sinking sun rays colour the ice golden, then pink, then finally red.

                In April the ice turns cloudy and breaks up.  This is often accelerated by deep-water currents and sometimes bubbles of methane rising from the bottom of the lake.  The bubbles push up from the bottom of the lake.  The bubbles push up from the depths to cause patches of clear water, or ‘springs’ as they are known locally.  Small icebergs might still be floating in the northern part of the lake in June, when the water is colder than in December.  Despite this, in relatively shallow bays, such as the 15-mile (24km) wide, sandy-shored Barguzine Bay, the water reaches a comfortable 22-23C (72-73F) – warm enough for a swim.
Location: Lake Baikal, Russia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANTARCTIC PENINSULA

  Ice and snow sculptures:                 Despite the summer thaw, large snow and ice fields persist throughout the year, both on the islands that fringe the peninsula and in the mountains on the mainland, and giant glaciers move inexorably to the sea.   Wind, sea, rain, and sun mould these natural features to create the enchanting ice sculptures that moved Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen to describe this as a ‘land [that] looks like a fairy tale’.                                At Jougla Point, deep snowfields, precipitous snow cliffs and snow cornices with the fluffy smoothness of meringues dominate the natural harbour of Port Lockroy in the Palmer Archipelago.   In Paradise Bay, glaciers end in towering ice cliffs that plummet into the sea, groaning and creaking as crev...
Post a Comment
Read more

HISTORY OF BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE

  Dangerous Shores:                   The Scottish coastline, with its submerged rocky moraines, is known for its hazards to navigation.   The Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape Rock) extends 427 m (1,400 ft) across the shipping routes between the firths of the Forth and Tay, and is particularly insidious because, except at low tide, it lies completely hidden by the waves.   From the earliest days of sail, shipwrecks here were common.   A local legend tells of a 14 th Century abbot of Aberbrothock (modern Arbroath) who ordered a bell to be hung on a timber buoy attached to the rock, where its clanging in the restless waves would serve as a warning.   The structure gave the rock its name, but did not last long.   By the 18 th Century, ship losses on the coasts around Britain were so frequent that merchants lobbied Parliament in Westminster to build lighthouses.   This led to the establishment, in 1786, of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

AMAZON THEATRE

  From decay to rebirth:                         The rubber boom was not to last. As production moved to plantations in Asia and Africa, the fortunes of Manaus warned.  With the invention of synthetic rubber, they vanished.  In 1907, a mere decade after that first operatic performance, the theatre saw its last.  And the lights went out not just on the theatre, but on the whole city as it could not afford to run its generators.                            Decay rapidly set in as the theatre fell prey to termites and the humid climate.  Renovation was attempted in 1929 and again in 1974, but it was 1988 before a successful project got underway.  Two years and $8 million later, opera finally returned to the stage the...
Post a Comment
Read more