Month: April 2009

Contest #94 in the countdown to 100, find clues at www.everything-everywhere.com

This rough pentagonal shaped island of Pohnpei, Micronesia is the 93rd answer in the countdown to #100.  This is also the location of Nan Modal, a feature in Contest #16.  At only 6 months into his epic journey, Gary found an unspoiled paradise while on this Island, and called it the most beautiful island in the pacific.

*Gary’s Note* If there is one place I’ve discovered which I would consider a real hidden travel treasure, it is Micronesia, and in particular the island of Pohnpei. I was only there for three days but it was a great three days. Nan Modal is on a par with Easter Island in my mind, but it never has received the same level of attention (someone needs to write a book proposing that aliens built it).

Click to see the ginormous version of the image

Those with the most beautiful answer:

• Karel
• Richard
• Milosh, Serbia
• Anders
• Petko
• Jim Vail
• Max_Power
• ej
• Dean G

Contest #93 in the countdown to 100, find clues at www.everything-everywhere.com

Gary battled the flies while visiting his first desert at Mungo National Park during his trip across Australia, read more about his visit(3/27/2008) to this World Heritage site.

*Gary’s Note* Mungo is one of the most underrated attractions in Australia. As you can see in the Google Earth photo, the large brown spot in the middle is a dry lake bed. The lighter crescent shape on the west and north end is a large sand dune known as the Wall of China. Mungo is significant as it is the location of some of the oldest modern Homo Sapien fossils on Earth, dating back 40-60,000 years. To get to Mungo, travel to Mildura, Victoria and you can drive or take day trips into Mungo. It is near the three-way border of NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.

Correct Answers:

• Max_Power
• Karel
• ej
• Richard
• Milosh, Serbia
• Dean G
• Eric D

Contest #92 in the countdown to 100, find clues at www.everything-everywhere.com

Contest #91 in the Countdown to #100 is the beautiful tropical archipelago of Palau, specifically the state of Koror, where Gary bought a t-shirt, did some diving, and swam with the Jellyfish.

Read Gary’s Thoughts about Palau (Sept. 17, 2007).

*Note from Gary* Palau is one of my favorite places. It is a tiny country of 20,000 people, but it has some of the best diving in the world. It is also home to the famous Jellyfish Lake (see video). Despite its size, Palau is a Federation with 18 states and each state has its own license plates. I also talked about Palau on episode 128 of the Amature Traveler Podcast.

Those diving deep for the Correct Answers:

• Karel
• Milosh, Serbia
• Max_Power
• ej
• Eric Doherty
• Richard
• Dean G

Contest #91 in the countdown to 100, find clues at www.everything-everywhere.com

Just off Canadian Hwy 3 (Crowsnest Hwy) northwest of Osoyoos, British Columbia is the most unusual spotted lake, really more of a 38 acre pond.  The spots are created by the strong mineral deposits and evaporation during the summer months, leaving small pools of unusual shapes and colors.  The lake is also known as a sacred lake, Kliluk, to the native Indian population.  More about the lake can be found here.

Thanks to Ewen for submitting the series 81-90, His final submission was a tough challenge, that stumped even myself, I was convinced that this was in Yellowstone somewhere.   Good to hear from you Karel – hope all is well.

Those finding the correct Spot:

• Richard
• Milosh, Serbia
• Max_Power
• Aaron Predeek
• Josh C
• hhgygy
• Dean G
• martha
• Andy McConnell
• Petko
• Michael T
• Soks
• Jim Vail
• ACG
• Karel

Partial credit to Maximilian who correctly identified the town of Osoyoos.

As Gary Mentioned previously, the Countdown to #100 will begin with Contest #91 (coming up next).

Photo courtesy of Doviende

Where On Google Earth has been running for quite a while now. I’d like to try and get more people involved in playing and guessing. The next several contests will be something a bit different. Contests 91-100 are going to have a theme: my last two years of traveling. Each of the next 10 contests will be from someplace I have been in the last two years. That is the only hint you will be given. You can figure out what that limits things to by looking at the country list on my website.

I’ll be cross promoting these contests on my travel blog as well as on Twitter. If you have a blog or a twitter account, please do what you can to help promote the site. Despite the ads, this really doesn’t make anything. I don’t think the ads have even covered the costs of hosting at this point.

Also, this is a good time to take some stock of how things are going and get some feedback from all the users for what you’d like to see and how you’d like to see the contests run. Please feel free to leave some feedback on this post.

I’d also like to thank Skip for the great job he has been doing keeping contests running over the last few months. My internet has been really hit and miss and he’s done a great job keeping things running smoothly.

This unusual set of spots can be seen from the Crowsnest Highway…