Pix Of The Day: Franco-Australian Bush Web Tour
CREDITS: © Bruce Henderson/WarrnamboolCAM.com

MAPS: Victoria planner, and Tower Hill crater
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

Bruce Henderson at WarrnamboolCAM.com has an interesting piece on the neglected French exploration of Australia (content may change by the time you visit). Visit to read about Admiral Antoine de Bougainville, naturalist scientist Nicolas Baudin, cartographers Henri and Louis-Claude Freycinet, and Tower Hill. This is the lookout view from the rim of the crater at Tower Hill, one of several volcanic features in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.

The feature lies west of Melbourne, between Warrnambool and Port Fairy on the map linked in the heading of this piece. There is a cairn commemorating local aviators, including Australia's most celebrated pilot, Charles Kingsford-Smith, who was the first person to fly across the Pacific. Check out Bruce's pictures taken in the local nature reserve with a Koala (not a bear, but a marsupial, as an alert reader has corrected us), a Kangaroo (another marsupial, this one is also a macropod), and an Emu (which is a ratite and like ostriches can be farmed), all of them seen among typical bush country. An interesting virtual web tour for those of us who always imagine an arid, dusty desert when the word 'bush' is used.

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On This Day In 2002: Langdale Lakeland Classic - Fri, 11 Oct 2002

CREDITS: © Tony Richards/LakelandCAM.co.uk
MAPS: [1] Region [2] District [3] Location

As photographer Tony Richards says, this is one of the classic Lakeland views. A visitor to the web site emailed us to ask about touring Lakeland: what follows is an interesting web site we found. We are in no way connected with Holiday Lakeland Cycling Tours, and this must not be taken as an endorsement, because we have never tried their services.

However, we did find the idea of their 4 days & 9 lakes cycling tour an attractive proposition. Any overseas visitor needing ready made routes and supplied gear would get a good idea of the district from this type of vacation. The four routes start and finish in the town of Keswick, which has many amenities for visitors. The web site has plenty of details, and pictures, of what to expect. Although they say the routes are suitable for visitors of a wide range of ability, common sense says that getting yourself into condition before you go would be a wise choice. There are tours of other areas that appear on this web site: look out for the C2C (Coast to Coast), and the Reiver ride through one of the most bloodily contested lands in history.

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