China’s first Ecological Overwater Road

These days, no country can negate the importance of motorways. The developed countries are making roads in a systematic and planned way to meet the future travel needs. When you look around, you’ll amaze the complex structure of bridges, bridges, flyovers and tunnels. One of super power China has opened a new stretch of road that interlinks Xingshang County to the Zhaojun Bridge in central China’s Hubei province. The motorway is four kilometers long section of the ten kilometers route is built on top of an elevated bridge that runs along the middle of a river valley. The latest route will cut down 20 minutes travel time from Xingshan to the Yiba Expressway, and at the same time drivers can have remarkable scenery. The transit time originally took close to an hour along a steep and convoluted road.

“Chen Xingda” the project manager of the road says, when the idea of motorway was first proposed in 2013, there were three different possible routes available. However, two of the routes comprise digging a tunnel through the mountains in the area. Therefore, the third option was a longer route and involved building on water. After a long consideration the project engineers opt to select the third option because that would enable them to protect the large quantity of plants and woodland in the mountains.

Those involved in the project claim this to be China’s first “ecological overwater road”. The overwater highway cost US$320,000 (about 2 million yuan) to construct which was approximately half of the $700,000 (4.4 million yuan) it cost to build the entire thing. The stretch of this motorway has recently completed in Xingshan County of China’s Hubei Province. Are the bridge’s creators crazy, or crazy like an ecologically minded fox? We’re sure, once you see the pictures; you’d entice to drive on this motorway. Check out the most anticipated overwater motorway in the world.

Wow, what a Stunning 4K Aerial Tour of Iceland

The video compilation of drone footage is captured in a recent 8-day trip to Iceland by Blue Racer Productions. All extremely beautiful footage was shot on the DJI Phantom 3.

Music: Headlights by Robin Schulz feat. Ilsey

Locations featured includes: Skógafoss, Reynisfjara Beach, Eskifjordur, Skaftafell National Park, Askja, Skaftafellsjökull, Dettifoss, Gulfoss, 

The Mysterious Well of Knaresborough

On the banks of the river Nidd, near the town of “Knaresborough” in North Yorkshire, is one of the oldest “entrance charging” tourist attraction in England. It’s a scary well that was once believed to have been cursed by the devil, for whatsoever object the dripping waters touched, had been turned to stone. The leaves of creepers, sticks, even dead birds. Folks also observed the side of the well looked like a giant’s skull. Most people escaped it because they thought that they too would be turned to stone if they touched it. The daring ones started leaving everyday objects adjacent the waterfall to watch them slowly turn to stone over just a few weeks. 

You can spot a Victorian top hat and a lady’s bonnet left at the waterfall in 1853 and other trinkets like teddy bears from in recent times. The initial written reference to the well was by John Leyland, antiquary to Henry VIII, who stayed the well in 1538. He wrote that the well was very familiar and visitors drank and showered under its falling waters, as they were thought to have phenomenal healing powers. However, around this time, the legendary soothsayer and prophetess Ursula Southeil, who is better recognized as Mother Shipton, started to gain fame.

According to the “Mother Shipton”, a local prostitute daughter was born in a cave, now identified as Mother Shipton Cave, not far from the cursed Petrifying Well. Mother Shipton was reputed to be shockingly ugly, even as a baby, which was attributed to her father being the devil. Since her juvenile, Mother Shipton distorted body aroused the curiosity of her neighbors. But Mother Shipton gave them a lot of other things to talk about with her lyrical prophecies, i.e. “Nostradamus”, Mother Shipton is said to have prophesied the Great Fire of London in 1666, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 as well as the invention of cellular phones. 

As Mother Shipton bad reputation grew, so did the notoriety of the petrifying well. However, in 1630, “King Charles I” sold the land where the Petrifying Well sits to a local gentleman named “Sir Charles Slingsby”. By then the well was so renowned that Slingsby began charging peoples for guided tours around it. In doing so, “Slingsby” mistakenly created England’s first visitor attraction. Finally, scientific analysis of the water exposed the magic behind the petrification process. The water has rich mineral content that precipitates over objects forming a hard shell of mineral over it in much the same way as stalactites and stalagmites form in a cave. Is it amazing; however, is the speed at which petrification occurred. Rather than centuries, little toys like teddy bears can petrify in just 3 to 5 months. Teddy bears are so popular because they’re porous which permits water to soak in and petrify the toy inside out. Other has left personal items such as rings and clothing, kitchen utensils, and even a bicycle.

Cleft Island, Wilsons Promontory in Australia

Cleft Island is a granite island located off the coast of Wilsons Promontory in the state of Victoria, in Australia. It is also recognized as Skull Rock, and belongs to a group of three islands called the “Anser Group”. It is one of the most scenic of all islands in Wilsons Promontory, and very beautiful, unspoiled and above all, is a tranquil place.  In the first look from some distance you may not think it is anything to write home about and that’s the beauty of it.  If you examine the island a little closer, you’ll soon see that the place is quite possibly perfect for an irredeemable scoundrel such as yourself. Indeed it looks like something from a hit movie script; a large stone, skull shaped rock rising halfway up from a deeply blue sea off an isolated stretch of coast.

The western side of the island has a massive cave with a grassy floor that was perhaps carved by the sea when the sea levels were much higher, thousands of years ago. Moreover, the cavern is 130 meters wide, 60 meters high and 60 meters deep. Hence at a certain angle, the island looks like a skull which is known as ” Skull Rock” and it is complete with a big cranium, an eye socket (the cave) and the bridge of a nose.  The history tells us, that the cave was once thought to be an ideal place for target practice by passing ships.There is in fact two large caves on the western side. Moreover, the roof of the smaller cave is about 25 meters above the sea and forms the floor of the upper larger cave, and it is well covered with soil and vegetation on its surface.

The island is practically unreachable with tall vertical cliffs and no place where a small boat could come ashore and anchor. Due to unreachable place, very few people have set foot on the island or explored the cave so far. Those who have, reportedly discovered cannon balls inside the cave. The Black-faced Cormorant birds are particularly, have taken advantage of Cleft Island’s isolation and inaccessibility to humans, by making the island its home. As intrepid but impulsive tourists have discovered, if you have a boat out to the island and start to circumnavigate it, then it’s secret is exposed.  Therefore, it is yet the handful who make it round the corner have never lived to tell the tale thanks to the piranha-bots we have in recent times had installed.

The Underground Coober Pedy is the Only “The Opal Capital of World”

Well, these days underground town is purely a unique idea. The Coober Pedy is a small mining town with a small population of just under 2,000. Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 kilometers north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. but it's also recognized "opal capital of the world" and has been constantly supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal since it was first founded in 1915. In this waterless environment, not too much doings goes on above ground and instead, the community exists in a network of tunnels underneath the desert earth, inside some 1,500 homes and dwellings they call their "dug-outs". Coober Pedy began attracting curious tourists in the 1980s when the first hotel was built - underground, of course. 

Moreover, besides the interest of subterranean sleeping though, the town boasts a network of underground shops, bars, museums and several other attractions to visit. Therefore, an average cave home at approximately 8 to 22 feet below ground level with modern amenities, numerous bedrooms, living area, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the rock for pretty much the same price as building a house above surface (excluding the air conditioning bills). These modern design homes have support pillars about 40 inches thick and natural air shafts for ventilation. Though, there's no sewage in underground Coober Bedy so kitchens and bathrooms are always preferred to construct above ground, basically the front rooms of the house, where the dug-out entrance lies. During the night time, you can head above ground for a game of nocturnal golf on Coober Bedy's infrequent grass-free desert golf course. After dark, players are relaxing to use glowing balls and a carry a small piece of “turf” around to use for teeing off.

EYLENDA - Iceland 4K

We were studying Audiovisual Media at the Stuttgart Media University in Germany.For our semester filmproject we have been fortunate enough to spend 14 days filming in Iceland. Our desire was to capture that remarkable landscape and wildlife to take you on a journey through this magical island. This film wouldn´t exist without the magnificent help and support of our sponsors, our university and a lot of other people who took part and supported us in any kind of way. Thanks a lot and cheers!

4K Streaming:
youtube.com/watch?v=U3r62Np_pxY

Sponsored by:
ARRI ( arri.de )
Island ProTravel GmbH ( islandprotravel.de )
RM-Reiseteam GmbH ( rm-motorradreisen.de )
LRTimelapse ( lrtimelapse.com )
Biwakschachtel Tübingen ( biwakschachtel-tuebingen.de )
bergzeit.de ( bergzeit.de )

Shot on:
ARRI AMIRA
Canon 5D Mark III

EYLENDA | Iceland 4K from Eylenda on Vimeo.