Must-see landscapes of the natural world (part 2)
Take a deep breath and get ready your hiking gear, or photography equipment, because we’re continuing our look at must-see landscapes of the natural world.
Mungo National Park – Australia
Australia is well-known for being a great tourist destination for a plethora of reasons and over the last few decades quite a few places in its legendary outback have become must-see or must-visit places, such as Alice Springs, the Blue Mountains or Uluru.
The Mungo National Park has however, managed to fly under the radar, possibly thanks to its being sheltered by clay mounds known as the Walls of China. The quiet preserve whispers a rich history of ancient lakes and long-gone megafauna whose skeletal remains pop up from time to time.
The desert-like expanse of Mungo National Park is so barren that one can actually see the curvature of the Earth, but there are obviously other things to see and do while there.
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona – USA
This one is an American classic that cannot be beat, and should be seen and experienced by everyone. The Grand Canyon offers seemingly endless vistas of gorges and chasms, all of which are big favorites with the local and not so local geologists since the history of the earth can be literally dug up from the myriad shelves of colorful rocks. Descending into the wide scars of the earth will have you finding a semi-arid terrain dotted with hundreds of secret grottos, and those reaching the canyon’s bottom – 1800 meters – will be reaching the planet’s prehistoric landscape.
Khao Sok Natioanal Park, Thailand
This is Thailand’s first protected preserve and it’s a dripping, juicy jungle part of the oldest rainforest in the world, a time from which snakes, monkey and tigers lurk together behind the tangle of lazy vines.
This is also where you can find the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia kerrii, capable of reaching over 80 centimeters in diameter. The other main characteristic of this extraordinary flower is the fact that it’s parasitic in nature, having no leaves of its own and no roots.
