Betty and Jock Leslie run the rescue centre of endangered giraffes, which were threatened with extinction due to human encroachment. They started the sanctuary in 1975. giraffes love visitors and greatly appreciate eating from their palm. They feeds on pellets which are prepared for them. The giraffes have a gestation of sixteen months.

Wednesdays are the special days to visit the centre for the people are able to learn more about them, different species of birds found in the nature trails and the surrounding environment. I enjoyed the giant from the African jungles the elephants walking style and the meditative looks on it face as its chews its food.

 

One of these trips was with a friend and involved the use of a 17 foot aluminum canoe in order to see the canyon from the river. The shortish first (and only, in our case) portage of 420 m was near the beginning of our trip and was not bad to negotiate with our light load as this was only a day trip. The portage allowed us access for canoeing the next 3 or 4 km to make our way towards a cliff face about 3 or 4 km up river. I had wondered about how this area of the canyon looked from river level for several years since I had walked the trail a couple of times years before, once in winter and once in summer. We were fortunate on the day that we chose for this venture for three reasons.

First, we were blessed with almost perfect weather with lots of sun and a slight breeze to help cool us and keep the flies away. Secondly, the current was not so strong as to completely exhaust us after the distance we needed to paddle (although, for me, it was a pretty good workout). And thirdly, when we arrived at the location beneath the main cliff, we were surprised to see two or three people rappelling down the rock face. We saw this as a great opportunity to take a breather while we were entertained by these adventurous rock climbers as they made their way down the 200+ foot, almost-vertical cliff face. Unfortunately, neither of us had brought a camera with us (major mistake) and so have no record but our memories of that day. It was several years before digital cameras hit the market so it would have had to have been the 35 mm camera. I didn't really know what to expect that day and so had left it at home. The trip back down river was much less work but no less enjoyable, being a beautiful, untouched piece of Ontario. Good memories were made that day.

Years later, and a couple of years ago, my significant other and I hiked the 1.5 km trail once more to refresh our memories. This time, we had a digital camera with us, and we were able to capture a few photos that give some idea of the natural beauty of the canyon as seen from the trail. I must say, though, that as I have aged, so has my nervousness increased at certain parts of the trail. I find that even though years before, I had ventured out to peer over the edge of precipitous rock edges, now I felt too uneasy about the danger, and enjoyed the wonderful views from several feet back. The canyon is kept as a natural area and so there is no man-made protection or fencing to prevent a person getting into trouble by being too bold and approaching the edge too closely. This should be kept in mind if one is to visit the area with younger folk.

I am not sure if one would be allowed to visit the canyon trail in winter these days. I haven't checked. I did visit with a friend about 30 years ago and I must admit, it was as beautiful in winter as in summer. There is an added advantage in winter. There are no black flies or mosquitoes. However, the trail needed to be negotiated very carefully as it was difficult to tell exactly what was underfoot. After some sight-seeing, we eventually decided on a great spot for our lunch and hot coffee. There, we spent a relaxed hour or two, chatting and in awe of the sight before us. There is a wonderful calmness that invades you when faced with such an experience. While there, we noticed cross-country skiers far below us traversing the river, now frozen and covered in a thick blanket of snow. Two sets of tracks extended behind them, barely disturbing the virgin surface. It is difficult to convey the feeling that one gets in the beauty of a sunny winter day in January looking over the surrounding country with the canyon below.

It is my hope that the natural beauty of the Barron Canyon can be preserved for generations to come so that more may experience it's unique offering.

In North Africa, there are 80 blocks of such pyramids scattered around the Egypt's Nile River, which have become one of the most miraculous places in the world. The highest pyramid called Cheops Pyramid and it was build by overlapping pile of boulders together. In the making of pyramids, Egyptians were not using any adhesive, glue or nails to attach the pile of boulders and one could even hardly find cracks or gaps among the rocks or stones from the overlapping plot. Nevertheless, the structure is extremely firm and strong that the sharp blades or swords could not even pass through. In addition, Egyptian Pyramids have experiencing 5,000 years of strong wind's erosions and yet these artifacts are remained not touch by the nature. They appeared to stand alone like warriors in the desert. These towering pyramids are such spectacular and superior buildings human had ever made on the Earth.

This is a mysterious place encountered in the Antarctic Island. People call it “a dry valley with no snow cover.” Antarctic is a place with fewer inhabitants and dwellers and thus some unexplainable phenomenon happenings in Antarctica remain mystery to the outsiders. Approximately 14 million square kilometers of the total area of the Antarctic continent have the snow cover. When viewing from the high sky, the central of the Antarctic is like a pot's lid plateau. Most of the areas vividly have their surfaces covered with snow with its thickness reaching 2000m and sometimes may attain the thickness up to 4,800m. In winter, the surrounding ice combines with the ice from the ocean to form up one smooth, large plateau to which people can hardly distinguish between the land and the sea.

Bermuda Triangle is located in Western North Atlantic, which comprises of seven major islands, 150 small islands, some islands composed of reefs group. Any high-tech devices or equipments will become malfunction when reaching this mysterious place and thus the survivors may have encountered problems to communicate with the outside world. Because of its extremely mysterious characteristic, people have called this place as a devil triangle.

In China, people have named this desert as “Moguicheng” or a city of devil. “Moguicheng” is famous in Xinjiang, China. When someone is strolling towards the castle in a sunny day accompanying with a gentle blowing breeze, one may heard a nice rhythm coming from the distance. The melodies are just like 10 million shaking bells, and sometimes one may feel the music like gentle flicking of 10 million guitars' strings. However, when cyclones come, bulks of sands are rising up in the sky by the strong winds, the sky turns pitch dark suddenly like a hell, and the nice music no longer heard but turns into strange sounds. The sounds resemble the roaring of the tigers, trumpeting of the elephants, and sounds by pigs that are being slaughtered, babies' crying, shouting of the women who are going to die, and alternately the sounds change to shouting, mourning and quarreling. The storms are then swirling aggressively by shooting up to the sky accompanying by terrified wolf growling sounds in the cloudy nightfall. People are wandering who had built this city and where do the sounds come from?

This island is legendary full of Surreptitious and specter. Westerners prefer sailing by venturing many historically strange events occurred here in the history of seafaring. In 1707, the British captain of the Andean Julius had discovered this land; however, it was strange that he could hardly reach this land. He later affirmed that this was not an optical illusion, so he marked the “land” on the map. 200 years later, the admiral Makaluofu and his inspection team who were sailing to the North Pole on their icebreaker vessel called "Ye Ermake," accidentally came across this piece of land. In 1925, Navigator called Woershi, too, passed through this land and he memorized the outline of the land. Nevertheless, the investigation team comprising of scientists, who sailed to this land in 1928 never found any islands as claimed by the previous navigators.

This place is located in Henan, China, and local people called it “bingbing bei” or the back of the ice. When midsummer approaches, people tend to move to places that are cool and refreshing. Although the change of four seasons, namely summer, autumn, spring and winter is an unchangeable law, in certain parts of the world, this theory seems not to be applicable. They are some fortunate people live in “warm” zone. This phenomenon is applying to people dwelling in the eastern mountain areas of Liaoning Province, China. They are experiencing warm temperature while other areas of China are experiencing the changes of seasons. Thus, this area has named after this phenomenon as "temperature anomaly zone." This "geothermal anomaly zone" extends from 1.5m out of the town of the left riverbank of Hunjiang to the end part of the right riverbank of Hun River and to the foothills near Guandian Province. The entire length for this "temperature anomaly zone" is approximately 15km, occupying the areas of approximately 106,000 square meters. The advent of summer is always accompanying with a decline of temperature in the area of "temperature anomaly zone." When the temperature reaches as high as 30 degree Celsius during the summer, the temperature is minus 12 degree Celsius at one-meter deep into the underground of this area, and the ice froze underground. When someone dips a drop of water one-meter deep into the underground of this area, the water will immediately turn into ice.

Shennongjia is located at the intersection of Sichuan, in Hubei zone, with the meeting of two rivers, namely China's Yangtze River and Hanjiang River. This region comprises an area of 3,250 square kilometers, accounting for more than 85 % of woodland. The average elevation is 1,700m, with the highest point of 3,105 meters, and with the characteristic of various types of climate. When speaking of Shennongjia, people here will think of “savage.” Since ancient times, large numbers of documentations have revealed the existence of savage roaming around this area. Legendary, people could even hardly identify the authenticity of the savage. The effort of collecting evidence on the existence of savage was initiating by the relevant departments from 1977 to 1980. They had collected savage hairs, footprints and feces left by the savage. This proved to us that a kind of bizarre animal might have existed in Shennongjia not long ago.

This is the famous ancient city of Teotihuacan in America, which called “death to the road.” This region stretched from a so-called main road of “death to the road” to the north-south roadway. In the tenth century AD, Ards heroes who were the earliest team walking along this way leading to a castle found nobody in the city, and thus they believed that the buildings on either side of the road were gods' tomb lands. In 1974, a Mexican person called Dayton • Halisi said that he had found a suitable unit measurement for all these streets and buildings at this city at the International American meeting. This unit length is 1.059m using a calculation from a computer. For example, the units for the Teaodiwakan snake temple, the moon and the Sun Pyramid is the height of 21, 42, and 63 "units" respectively with the ratio of 1:2:3 based upon the ancient calculation.

People not allowed entering this Kunlun Mountains as its name suggested as "The Gates of Hell." This valley is a death valley, which further claims the Kunlun Mountains "The Gates of Hell." The remains found in this valley were the furs, bones, skeletons of wolves, bears and hunters and some scattered lonely tombs, rendering the world in the death of a ghastly terrifying atmosphere. The Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of a geological team in China had recorded a true story in the year of 1983 on a group of hungry horse that was grazing the grass and disappeared suddenly in the "The Gates of Hell." A herdsman went into the prohibited area of "The Gates of Hell" to search for his horse. After few days, he was found missing but the horse emerged at the foothill of Kunlun Mountains. Later, the herdsman was found lying on a small hill with his clothes badly torn off, barely footed, eyes widely opened with an angry look, a shotgun gripping in one of his hands showing that he was reluctantly to die. The miraculous thing was that no wounds or signs found around his body to show that he had attacked.

Canada Niagara Falls is the world's most mysterious places in the world. Niagara Falls constitutes a part of Canada and the border of United States, the New York State and Ontario, Canada, separating from the Niagara River by flowing northward from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario with a total length of nearly 30 miles. Located in the north, covering an area of 250,000 square miles, Niagara Falls is a smooth exit to these lakes. Its maximum water flow reaches 250,000 cubic feet per second. Niagara Falls is indeed very awesome.

This Geysering is a magical spring found in the upper part of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet, China. The spring bursts out in a short while and stops for a while before following by other bursts. The burst goes on, stops and goes on. In other words, its eruption cycle is continuous for a few minutes, auto stop after a few dozen minutes; and followed by another burst and so forth. It bursts like an eruption with a huge, shocked sound. It vents out some high temperature steam from the mouth of the spring. The spring then expands immediately into one to two meters in diameter, and rushes out as water column as high as 20m into the sky. In addition to China's Geysering, in the place near Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, the Geysering is renowned in the world with its diameter of 20m. When there is drizzling rain, this water column can even soar up as high as 70m into the sky.

The Map of Antarctica

Satellite image of Antarctica

Because of a high altitude, thin air, coupled with the snow and ice on the surface of the solar reflection, has been the result that the Antarctica becoming the coldest areas in the world, with an average temperature 20 degrees lowers than the Arctic's temperature.

There is a common phenomenon with 12 or more tropical storms (typhoon) in the Antarctica and it is by far the most frequent turmoil, with wind speed above 100km per hour. The France “Dierweier” observation team has detected the wind speed with 100m per second, a wind speed of 12 typhoons three times, and its destructive power is equivalent to 10 times of 12 typhoons. Therefore, the Antarctic is renowned for a characteristic of “very windy.”

Luoerde Amundsen (Roald Amundsen) is the first explorer who reached Antarctica on December 14, 1911. A month later, Robert Scott (Robert Falcon Scott) arrived at the Antarctica. However, Scott and his four companions were dying of hunger due to extremely cold weather in the Antarctica.

Exploring the Beauty of Antarctica

Migration process is usually a tiring and hard journey for the penguins to venture. When they hardly bear on hardships while walking over the time, they will use their fat belly to crawl around the ice or snow.

These emperor penguins have gigantic heads. They are the giant penguins in the world. In general, their height is 90cm, but they can achieve as high as 120cm in height. Their maximum weight is 34kg. These penguins are monogamy but not polygamy, and thus the family structure of them is one wife and one husband. After laying the eggs, mother penguin will hand over the eggs to father penguin. Then the mother penguin goes out in search for foods, while the father penguin incubates the eggs. Every year in March, these penguins will leave the ocean and migrate to different places that they find free from natural enemies to produce offspring. Almost all the penguins from these species will have a mass migration to leave the sea every year. Their two feet walk in a slow pace as tough a baby starts walking to explore their challenging and attractive journeys.

These penguins have small black feathers from the side of the ear pass through their chins and to the other side of the ear. Sometimes, people call them “police officer's penguin.” Their height can extend from 43 to 53cm and weighing 4kg. These penguins are very aggressive, as they prefer to fight. Their reproductive season is in every winter. Mother penguin produces two eggs each time, while the father penguin incubates the eggs. Both father and mother penguins will take turn to take care of their baby penguin.

Young penguins has strict custody and well care from both of their parents, nevertheless, young penguins have to bear on the harsh environmental condition in the Antarctic coupling with the threat from the predators. Therefore, the survival rate for them is relatively low with their low birth rate of 20% to 30%.

Penguins are renowned for loving their nests the most. Sometimes, they steal the neighbor's eggs by conquering other penguins' nests. They monopolize the custody by taking care of other baby penguins that they succeed to steal. Thus, penguins refuse to leave their children even a second as they fear of losing their children. When mother penguin is out in search for foods, father penguin will take strict supervision to their children. Similarly, when father penguin is out for “business affairs,” mother penguin will take over the responsibility to look after their children.

Young penguins stand at the feet of their parents, while adult penguins will use their abdominal features to let their children stay warm. On the whitish and ice-covered land, penguins nest and feed their children. Both male and female penguins will take turn to hatch the eggs. The hatching process takes approximately one to two months.

In order to survive their lives, penguins have to adapt themselves to an extreme weather in the Antarctic. Therefore, they always walk in a crowd close to other penguins with their back facing out. Their ancestors have taught them how to walk against the cold and strong winds with the speed of 160km per hour. The penguins that walk out of the group will always rotate to the middle of the group to get warmth. The empty place left by them will be filling by the penguins in the middle group. They will always take turn to get warmth. The spirit of unity ensures them to store the energy in their bodies to continue to survive at the harsh environmental condition in the Antarctic island.

Antarctic seabirds breed in the summer. They breed their eggs mostly in the Antarctic Peninsula and Sub Antarctic Islands, with one to two eggs each time. Male and female birds will take turn to hatch the eggs. They share their responsibility to take care of their young children. After three months, they teach their children how to swim and how to search for foods. The main characteristics of the Antarctic seabirds are their ability to fly, to land on the land, iceberg, on top of the water and icecaps. They feed on shrimps, fish and squids.

Antarctic swallow or commonly known as the Antarctic pigeon as its appearance resembles the pigeon. Antarctic swallow is the most beautiful seabird among the bird species in the Antarctic Island. They inhibit in the Antarctic region throughout the year and thus they are “indigenous tribes” as compared to other birds that tend to migrate to the north of the Polar Regions when the season changes.

Skua is a natural enemy for penguins. Skua has about 0.7m in length. Its body has a covering of black, blue, green, shining and bright feathers. Besides that, Skua has a long hooked beak and a pair of strong wings.

Skua, a type of bird mostly flies over the Antarctic Island and seldom stays close to the water. However, sometimes when searching for foods, Skuas will fly near offshore to capture its prey. Skuas have a marvelous flying ability to adapt itself to the extreme climate conditions in the Antarctic Island.

Antarctic fur sea lion, a type of seal, which is also called sea wolf. Its head and facial appearance resembles a dog or a wolf, and its long beard looks as if a lion. The fur sea lion has about 2m in length and weighing 150 to 200kg. They do not like to live in groups, and only 3 to 5 of Antarctic fur sea lion will stay together.

Chinese Antarctic expedition team has named this region as the Great Wall Bay. Behind the Great Wall Bay is an island of penguin and the ice on this island never melt off throughout the year.

The winds in Antarctica are strong with a maximum wind speed accelerates to 100m per second. Years and years, the strong winds erode, grind and construct the stones by shaping them into a diverse and unique shape of rocks and stones.

Lichen is one of the oldest plants on Earth. It belongs to a kind of primitive type of lower plants, and they are the most widely distributed species found on the island of Antarctica. Its growing rate is relatively low, with the growth of 1mm every 100 years.

Penguins can be seen everywhere near the station in the Antarctic. Three penguins were lining up in a sequence to walk towards the station, while the other three rooted on the ground by paying great interest to the helicopter.

The station was located in Fildes Peninsula on the island of King George, which is the largest island in South Shetland Island. Approximately 85% of the island has a snow cover. Its location is in the low latitude areas of Antarctica, surrounded by sea with a characteristic of marine climate, and thus this area is also known as “tropical” in the Antarctica. Its annual average temperature is -2.8°C.

Antarctica has its surface covered with tremendous amount of iceberg. Most of the iceberg forms in spring and winter. The warm weather at these periods causes the glacier or ice edge to split at a tremendous speed. Greenland glaciers alone have 10,000 pieces of iceberg forming up each year.

At the high latitude of Antarctic, there will be a bright light phenomenon flashing through the long dark night. Very often, this colorful and endless changes in the Earth's Aurora is caused by a huge discharge phenomenon occurred in the atmosphere, approximately 100km above the ground.

Enjoy snow year round- Make a snowglobe

A snowglobe is quick and easy to create. When the promised snowfall doesn't turn your backyard into a winter wonderland, you can simply shake your snowglobe and watch a beautiful, glittery snow fall develop before your eyes. To make a snowglobe, glue a miniature snowman or other snow motif onto the inside lid of a small jar. Fill the jar with water and glitter to serve as snow. Replace the lid and seal the edges of the lid with a layer of sealant. Now you can shake your snowglobe and watch the snow fall.

Enjoy snow year round- Make snow cones

You can buy a snow cone machine inexpensively at places like Walmart or Target or use your home blender to create sweet, icy snow cones. When you sink your lips into the tasty ice, you'll experience a taste of winter right on the tip of your tongue. A snow cone maker is also a great way to keep the kids entertained when they have to stay inside.

Enjoy snow year round - Sing songs about snow

When the children can't go out and play in the snow, you can recreate the spirit of a snowfall by singing songs about snow. Gather around the fireplace as a family and sing old fashioned snow songs such as “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” and “Frosty the Snowman”. Serve hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows or whipped cream to add to the spirit of a snowy, winter night.

Enjoy snow year round - Take a vacation to a snowy area

If snow doesn't reach your area often enough, consider taking your family vacation during the winter months. Forgo the tropical paradise and visit a snowy area of the world instead. A trip to northern Canada, Finland, or Sweden during the winter months should give you a good opportunity to indulge your love of snow as well as sight see in a brand new area.

Enjoy snow year round - Visit Snow World

If you don't mind traveling a distance, you can visit the world's biggest snow theme park in India. Here you can participate in such events as snow sculpting and snow dancing along with a variety of other attractions. This unique theme park has 17,000 square feet of snow related fun for all ages. Snow World has become a favorite destination for people from all over India and is now attracting visitors from the rest of the world who are dazzled by all the snow related activities this park has to offer. It's a snow lover's paradise!

If you love snow and can't wait until the next snowfall arrives, find your own ways of walking in a winter wonderland. It's not as hard as you think!

1. Making a snowman

   A traditional classic and fun for the whole family. You can personalize it for and homemade added touch of uniqueness. Can also be made into many shapes and sizes.

2. Snow Forts

   Your snowy home away from home. How big, how small is all for you to decide. Can be a great addition to a backyard and is perfect for a snowman to watch over.

3. Snowball Fights

   The most used activity to accompany the snow fort (mentioned above). Compete with your friends in a head-to-head competition, and make the most out of your winter at the same time.

4. Shoveling Snow

   A fun way to clean up after a massive snowball fight, clear a driveway, or do something when you are alone. A fun way to keep healthy as well.

5. Ice Skating

   Its not exactly on snow but still a fun way to enjoy the winter weather. Enjoy gliding on ice while others talk. A must do winter event for the whole family.

Thankfully, various ski associations with first hand knowledge of the actual snow levels of last season have sought public correction and recognition from the media as to the unfounded nature of their premature remarks; remarks about the uncertain future of European skiing holidays.

Indeed the resorts where skiing is placed below 1300 meters are experiencing the "wrong kind of precipitation", as temperatures are rising. However if you pick a resort where the skiing is above 1300 meters, then you will be experiencing normal skiing conditions and full coverage of ski area, which nowadays is further enhanced by snow cannons; snow cannons that are actually making the skiing better than ever before.