Category Archives: Nature You are taking a chance in the tropics during the wet season! Bali, that volcanic tropical paradise just eight degrees south of the equator, is in the path of the west monsoon from October to April, with heavy rains typical from December through March. But, there are a lot of reasons to love Bali, any time of year. The window of opportunity for my husband and […]  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 […] |
|
