TRAVEL TUESDAY 561 - CALIFORNIA DESERT

“A cactus doesn't live in the desert because it likes the desert; it lives there because the desert hasn't killed it yet.” — Hope Jahren

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and then share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

California's desert region spans the southeastern part of the state and features three main arid zones: the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Desert, and a portion of the Great Basin Desert. 

Death Valley National Park is famous for Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level (the lowest point in North America) and record-high summer temperatures. Joshua Tree National Park is known for giant granite boulders and unique, twisted yucca plants. Mojave National Preserve features volcanic cinder cones, the singing Kelso Dunes, and dense Joshua tree forests. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is California's largest state park, offering slot canyons, vast badlands, and spring wildflower blooms.

Silhouettes of blooming desert agave plants (Agave deserti) above, show the tall, slender stalks branching at the top. These plants are also known as the century plant. Their stalks can grow up to seven metres high when the plant produces its once-in-a-lifetime bloom. This type of scenery is highly characteristic of the southern California deserts, particularly Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and parts of the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, where these agaves thrive on rocky slopes and washes.

Best time to visit is October through April, when daytime weather is mild. In the Summer, conditions can be extreme, with temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C, making for extreme and potentially dangerous trips. The Californian deserts are popular for hiking, stargazing, photography, and camping.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 527 - MARAYA, SAUDI ARABIA

“A flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how great, can be overcome.” - Matshona Dhliwayo

The Maraya Concert Hall is an architectural marvel and a multi-purpose event venue located in the Ashar Valley of AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Its name means "mirror" or "reflection" in Arabic, a fitting description as the entire exterior is clad in 9,740 square meters of mirrored glass, making it the world's largest mirrored building and blending seamlessly into the stunning desert landscape.

Situated in the ancient desert region of AlUla, a 20-minute drive from the town centre and near Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage site, Hegra. The cuboid, three-story structure was designed by Italian firm Gio Forma and was built in less than three months. It features a large retractable window that opens to panoramic views of the valley, integrating the natural scenery with performances.

The venue includes a 500-seat concert hall equipped with state-of-the-art acoustic systems. It hosts a wide range of events, including international concerts, art exhibitions (like an Andy Warhol exhibit), conferences, and bespoke events. The building is also home to Maraya Social, a fine dining restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton, which requires advance reservation to dine. General access to the interior is not permitted without a guided tour ticket, an event ticket, or a restaurant reservation. Guided tours are available and pre-registration is required.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 405 - THE SAHARA DESERT

“Where are the people?” the little prince at last took up the conversation again. “It is a little lonely in the desert… ” “It is also lonely among men,” the snake said. ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.
There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.
Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The  Sahara is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres, it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. The name "Sahara" is derived from the Arabic word for "desert" in the feminine irregular form. The desert covers much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan.

It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert.

For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000-year cycle caused by the precession of Earth's axis (about 26,000 years) as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African monsoon.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 360 - SUNSET IN THE SAHARA

“What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere in it lies a hidden well.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel. There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only. Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

The Sahara is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres, it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.  The name "Sahara" is derived from the Arabic word for "desert" in the feminine irregular form, the singular ṣaḥra' (صحراء /ˈsˤaħra/), plural ṣaḥārā (صَحَارَى /ˈsˤaħaːraː/), ṣaḥār (صَحَار), ṣaḥrāwāt (صَحْرَاوَات), ṣaḥāriy (صَحَارِي).

The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert. For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000-year cycle caused by the precession of Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African monsoon.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 255 - COOBER PEDY, AUSTRALIA

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“To wake in that desert dawn was like waking in the heart of an opal. ... See the desert on a fine morning and die - if you can!” - Gertrude Bell

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel. 

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

 

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers shall be removed immediately.

Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. According to the 2011 census, its population was 1,695 (953 males, 742 females, including 275 indigenous Australians). The town is sometimes referred to as the “opal capital of the world” because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. 

Coober Pedy is renowned for its below-ground residences, called “dugouts”, which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat. The name “Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means “boys’ waterhole". Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal. 

Coober Pedy today relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment and sustainability. Coober Pedy has over seventy opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world. 

 

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and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
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TRAVEL TUESDAY #188 - ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA

“It’s no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.” ― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Alice Springs is the third largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as “the Alice” or simply “Alice”, Alice Springs is situated roughly in Australia’s geographic centre. The area is known as Mparntwe to its original inhabitants, the Arrernte, who have lived in the Central Australian desert in and around what is now Alice Springs for thousands of years. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Lady Alice Todd (née Alice Gillam Bell), wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd.

Alice Springs has a population of 27,972, which makes up 8.7 percent of the territory’s population. Alice Springs is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin. The town straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The surrounding region is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, an arid environment consisting of several different deserts.

In Alice Springs temperatures can vary dramatically, with an average maximum temperature in summer of 35.6 °C and an average minimum temperature in winter of 5.1 °C. Alice Springs has faced many problems in recent years, largely stemming from an increase in crime and a strong racial divide that has existed for years in the town.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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