Sahara ? No: Wales !

Wildlife is astonishing.
I'm going to show you a picture.



I am ready to bet any money that If I ask you where is it this place, many of you would answer:
"Sure enough it is somewhere in the Sahara desert" (COLD :D).
"It is probably in Saudi Arabia" (GETTING COLDER :D).
"I guess, that must be in central Asia" (GETTING COLDER :D).
"I can't miss it. It certainly is the Gobi Desert !" (GETTING COLDER AND COLDER :D).
"I surrender. where IS IT ???????? :cnfs:"
The answer is: it is in Wales !
"In Wales ???????"
"Yes it is !"
It is in central Wales.
As Wikipedia says, "The area corresponds roughly to the upland area called Elenydd".
They call it "Desert of Wales".
Did you know ?
There's always something to learn...

 

I am a little biased, Maksim, but I think the Welsh countryside is spectacular. I'd like to end up living there, although southern Italy is also wonderful and does have a tiny bit more sunshine .

Here is a shot taken from the winding road to Dinas Mawddwy, on the edge of Snowdonia:-



And here is the Tanat Valley - and proof that we do get sunshine in Wales:-



And finally, a mean and moody day on the island of Anglesey:-

 

Oh my.......everything is gorgeous!

 

"Rythm of the seasons, the wind and the rain.

Dryness and heat and then the wind again.

Always the wind. And rain, which is a sadness we ascribe to nature.

Who feels nothing"

Can you see why I moved out of Wales now.

 

Nice to see some Welsh shots. Thank you both.
Anybody got any more ?

 

Do you have any nice Scottish shots, Alice?

 

What, like Macallan, Laphroaig, Glen Morangie, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Etc. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT]

:hehe:

 

This is the Slate quarry where I used to work.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/28507

If you scroll down to the little map under the picture, there is a little cross near the green road. Thats the chappel next door to my old house.

Slap bang in the middle of 2 slate heaps. In the winter the sun would rise from behind one at 10.30AM, then set behind the other at 2.30.

 

Bought Uncle Hamish some Laphroaig last Xmas. He said it tasted like tarmacadam. I fear he has been away from the Highlands too long.

 

It's a Celtic thing - Ireland is the same (which is why I live here now!). And my two years in Scotland - brrrrr. The wind in Edinburgh - strong enough to blow you away.

As for more Welsh shots - here are a few of Tywyn and surroundings taken when we visited a couple of years ago.







Ok, perhaps it doesn't rain all the time in Wales...

 

Lovely pics, Aaron. I don't mind the wind and rain too much, although it gets tedious if it goes on for weeks without a break. We may live in the soft South but we don't have central heating, which most people seem to find very odd. Actually one good fire is enough to keep a small house with a proper chimney warm under normal conditions, although if we do get snow on Thursday we may celebrate by heating the upstairs :hehe:.

 

Well, on my opinion, you are not "biased" (I needed to read my English-Italian dictionary to see the meaning of this "new" word: "biased" ).
I think that you are not "biased" since Wales is certainly a spectacular country. Our planet is a spectacular one, actually.
That's why I like to travel. Anywhere: to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west, up, down, etc.
Having said that, I make a digression:
I have a feeling that is also true that our own "homeland" is like our own "child": it is however the "better one", no matter what...
Because we are born in our own homeland and it seems to us the better land in the world.
End of digression.
Sure enough, Italy has more sunshine than Wales.
Sunshine is a matter of latitude and of geography.
The more you come close to the Equator, the more the sunrays are powerfull. That's because, at the lower latitudes, at midday, the sun goes upper in the sky. Indeed at the upper latitudes, the sun stays not too much above the horizon.
In the zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, are days in the year when - at midday - the sun is at the Zenith.
The sun is so high in the sky that is perpendicular to the earth surface.
In those times, all things have a very short shadow that stays exactly within their shape.
It is a sunshine that burns the skin up.
But sunshine is also a matter of geography.
Continental places tend to have more sunshine than places affected by oceanic disturbances.
For example, Moscow has more sunshine than London even though Moscow is norther than London. About 56 Latitude North for Moscow and about 51 Latitude North for London. That's because Moscow has a continental dry climate as opposed to the oceanic changeble London climate. More sunshine does not always mean "higher temperatures"...
It may be a glorious sunny winter day in Moscow with 20 Celsius degrees below freezing point as well as an overcast summer day in London with 20 Celsius degrees ABOVE freezing point...
A friend of mine, in the Gobi desert (Northern China), in a sunny winter day, kept her jacket open (because, due to the sunshine, she was feeling ok). When she was back home, she realized that she had a beginning of frostbite at her legs. She felt ok because of the sunshine and of the dry wheather. But the air temperature was about 20 celsius degrees below freezing point...

Anyway, I have started this thread about the "desert of wales" because I love "paradoxes".
I love all those things that are strange, weird, that deceive, mislead... :D
When I first see the picture that I have posted, I was astonished:
umbelieveble ! - I though - It is Wales but it looks somewhere in the central asia steps/deserts...
The pictures that you have posted, show a defenetely more comfortable and lovely Wales, defenetely different from the image of a desert...

Bye ClaraLou !

 

Hi Maksim,

Have you still got snow in your beautiful country ?

Aaron, That first picture, did the field have a spring in the middle with duck weed in ?

If so, I recon thats the end of the Lleyn peninsular, there is a big rock at the bottom of the field that we used to stand on to pick the kelp.

 

Hi Ziggy.
Thank you for "beautiful country".
Actually - as it is - my country may be split into two parts.
The first part is the northern part.
The second part is the "peninsular" part.
I live in the first part: the northern one.
If beautiful my country (the northern country part) might be, it is as beautifull at the same extent as Britain is.
I say that as far as nature and wildlife is concern.
Indeed If I showed you a picture of a forest/wood taken in northern Italy, then you could wrongly guess that this picture has been taken in your british forest/wood.
I mean: in northern Italy we have the same kind of vegetation that you have in Britan. Tha same Platanus, the same Beeches, the same Populus, etc.
Still, in northern Italy we have neither mediterranean seas/beaches nor romans/greeks monuments, nor anything stuff of that kind.
On the other hand, we share our high-snowed Alps with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenija.
Let's put it this way: Northern Italy's beauty is not the Italian beauty (made of mediterranean beaches and landscapes) that people use to think of when they think about Italy.
Nortern Italy's beauty IS CERTAINLY a beauty but is not the same kind of beauty as the rest of Italy's one (the one that people use to think about).
Still, in winter, Northern Italy has exactly the same temperatures as in Britain (lows at about zero degrees or below freezing point and highs ranging between +2 and +5, +6, +7).
A completely different ball game is the summer.
In such a season, North Italy is as hot as the rest of Italy with long spels with highs at +30, +31 and even +35, +36, +37, +38, +39...
In Summer, Northern Italy is defenetely unlike Britain.
Have you ever gone to New York ?
Well, Northern Italy has exactly the same climate as New York has: heather are very needed in winter, air conditioning are very needed in summer...
I spend a lot of money: in winter for methane of heather, in summer for electricity of air conditioning.
Now I come to your question.
We had less than half an inch snow-cap at the end of november as a starting snowfall of the season and some days ago we had a two inch snowcap snowfall.
In the rest of Italy the weather of these days is defenetely milder.
In Sicily we had even a temperature of +23 !

PS:
I gave a clarification about the differences between Northern Italy and the rest of Italy because - to be honest - I could not take as mine the compliment of "beautiful country" since, unfortunately, in North Italy we may not boast the same "beauties" as the rest of Italy may do.
I wish we might do...
...but we may not since in, northern Italy, we have neither the Coloseum, nor Florence, nor a beautiful sea, nor beautiful beaches...
We have Venice and the Alps ! That's true...

Bye !

 

Hi Maksim,

No, I meant your part of Italia. I have been there a few times & I think its great. I have climbed one of your alps & stood face to face with a Bruni Alpini.

I have visited the republic of San Marino & stepped back in time, they stamped our passports with a date 300 years ealier than everyone elses.

I have been covered in pidgeons in Venice & Pooed on by Bats in Cattolica.

Loved every minute of it.:gnthb: