Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 PULPIT ROCK, NORWAY Sometimes it’s best to leave it to nature. While glass floors and skyscrapers can be impressive, in Norway it’s a mighty lump of stone that offers the best outlook. Preikestolen – Pulpit Rock – looms 604m above Lysefjord, one of myriad incisions along Norway’s west coast. There are mountains aplenty hereabouts, but this summit seems built for purpose: its almost perfectly flat top juts out over the water (no safety barriers here), commanding uninterrupted if vertiginous views. Scarier still, peer down the cracks in Preikestolen’s surface – caused by 10,000 years of glacial action – and hope no new ones form just then… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 GRAND CANYON SKYWALK, ARIZONA, USA Striking architectural achievement or environment-defacing monstrosity? Opened in 2007, the Grand Canyon Skywalk – a 20m-wide, glass-and-concrete horse-shoe projecting out over a side canyon of Arizona’s gorgeous gorge – doesn’t sit well with purists who like their natural wonders just as that. The majority of the land-owning Hualapai Indian tribe are pleased, as their coffers are filled. And so are many visitors: the views from this cantilevered platform are undeniably breathtaking – not least due to the see-through floor, putting seemingly nothing but air between you and the red-rock depths hundreds of metres below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 KNIFE-EDGE POINT, VICTORIA FALLS, ZAMBIA Noise – a relentless, violent roar. The pale arc of a rainbow. Spray like smoke, billowing into the air as if the river were actually on fi re. Victoria Falls – known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya – is the Zambezi’s death plunge, the point at which the mighty river flings itself off a 100m-high basalt precipice to snake into gorges. Its scale is alarming, especially when witnessed from Knife-Edge Point. Walk over the footbridge to this sturdy buttress where – if the mist is being blown in the opposite direction – you can gaze at the falls and the churning abyss below. March to April is peak flood season – the falls are in full flow, but spray can obstruct views; water levels are lowest in November and December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 AIGUILL E DU MIDI, CHAMONIX, FRANCE So close you could touch it: that’s the sensation aroused when you’re standing on the viewing platform of the Aiguille du Midi, with (on a clear day) the snow-smothered monster of Mont Blanc visible dead ahead. The Aiguille is no minnow itself – this spiky mountain rears up 3842m into the air. But it’s a democratic peak: a two-part cable-car ride from the town of Chamonix below zips from valley bottom to the top – a 2800m altitude gain – in just 20 breathtaking minutes. This enables anyone with a head for heights to get intimate with the legendary massif – a perspective usually reserved for expert mountaineers. The Aiguille is the starting point for some routes up Mont Blanc; paragliding is also possible, though not in July or August. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 ILLAWARRA FLY TREETOP WALK, AUSTRALIA There’s no better way to commune with the kookaburras, cockatoos and crimson rosellas – the Illawarra Fly Treetop Walk puts you in the canopy of Australia’s temperate and tree-cloaked Southern Highlands. Hovering 25m above the ground, between stands of eucalyptus, sassafras, blackwood and mulberry, this 500m-long platform gives the wingless a glimpse of the avian lifestyle. And the bird’s-eye views are spectacular, from close-ups of tree-dwelling flora to sweeping panoramas of the surrounding escarpment, part of the country’s grand Great Dividing Range. Climb up Knights Tower, 20m higher than the walkway itself, for an even loftier lookout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 SKY TOWER, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND In a land renowned for natural wonders, it’s a human-made site that provides the best – or, at least, most terrifying – views. At 328m, Auckland’s Sky Tower is the country’s tallest building. And this being New Zealand (where there has to be a way to jump off, into or under everything for Ê»fun’) they can’t just leave it at that. A handful of high-adrenalin options are available, 192m up: gaze out from the enclosed glass rotunda; don a harness to walk a dizzying lap outside; or plunge (with safety wire) at 85km/h to the plaza below – less lookout than leap-off . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 DACHSTEIN SKY WALK, AUSTRIA Hang out over a heap of mountains – the glass-bottomed gantry jutting out from this 2700m massif in Austria offers 360-degree views across state lines and international borders: Slovenia’s Triglav summits and the Czech Republic’s Bohemian forests can be seen. If you can bear to look, that is – it’s a dizzying prospect. And the wind and snow frequently flurry, making this an exposed, if exhilarating promontory. The journey up is even more hair-raising: the cablecar from the Türlwandhütte rises nearly 1000m to the Hunerkogel station, skimming the limestone cliff face (you can see every crack and crevice) by what feels like mere inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 IL BINOCOLO, MERANO, ITALY Viewing platforms go self-referential in the Italian South Tyrol. Conceived by architect Matteo Thun as an addition to the already lovely gardens at Trauttmansdorff Castle, this lookout suspended over the trees resembles a pair of opera binoculars. And as binoculars should, it gives a fine focus to those who dare step out onto its transparent gantry: over the vineyards, orchards, rooftops and mountainsides around the sophisticated town of Merano. It’s a grand garden to gaze over, too. Arranged around the neo-Gothic palace are swaths of rhododendrons, terraced water gardens, exotic palms, a house of bees and the world’s oldest vine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 PETRONAS TOWERS SKYBRIDGE, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA This viewing platform is perhaps better looked at, rather than from. The two-storey Skybridge linking the 41st and 42nd floors of the two Petronas Towers is an engineering marvel; with its huge supporting Ê»legs’ it looks like the bolt holding the twin 452m-high skyscrapers together. At night it’s even more impressive, when the entire complex glitters brighter than a Christmas tree. The view from the bridge, 170m up, is pretty good, too: the super-quick lift whizzes you up to see the green spaces of the Malaysian capital mingling with the other high-rises. The Skybridge is closed Monday; the best place for a view of the Petronas Towers is the Menara KL tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srg73 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I still think Hong Kong has 2 amazing view points. 1, Victoria Peak 2, The Big Budda (right outside the airport for all of you stop overs 3rd pic is airport) Sorry for the poor last picture but I dont like heights and was hanging on for dear life!! S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I'm off there on Thursday, will be lovely to see although I'm not looking forward to the hustle and bustle:no: I still think Hong Kong has 2 amazing view points. 1, Victoria Peak 2, The Big Budda (right outside the airport for all of you stop overs 3rd pic is airport) Sorry for the poor last picture but I dont like heights and was hanging on for dear life!! S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest37336 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I didn't generally mind heights when I was younger, but as the years have gone by I am getting worse I'm afraid,:no: Last time I took my two Herbert's to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire I suffered from 'Hyper Tension Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome' (see coward and wuss) after going on the carousel,:embarrassed::biglaugh: I seriously had to sit down with a strong coffee and ciggy before I could walk another step. The kids think it funny, but it has left an indelible mark on me and even to this day escalators send me into fits of 'Noooooooooooooooo, Mummy' Cheers Tony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewebweazel Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 PULPIT ROCK, NORWAY Are these people nuts??? Can they not see that there is huge crack in the rock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Are these people nuts??? Can they not see that there is huge crack in the rock? Have to agree you wouldn't catch me there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.