Australia
Purnululu (Bungle Bungles)
Beehive-striped sandstone domes rising from the Kimberley plain, unseen by outsiders until 1983.
The domes rise from the Kimberley plain in alternating bands of orange sandstone and dark cyanobacterial crust — beehive shapes 200 metres tall, invisible to the outside world until a film crew spotted them from the air in 1983. Purnululu hid in plain sight for millions of years.
Purnululu National Park in Western Australia's Kimberley region contains the Bungle Bungle Range — a formation of conical sandstone towers with distinctive horizontal banding. The orange bands are iron-stained sandstone; the dark bands are a crust of cyanobacteria. Cathedral Gorge opens into a natural amphitheatre with a permanent pool and acoustics that amplify a whisper into an echo. The park was not known to non-Indigenous Australians until 1983, when a television film crew flew over the range. The Kija and Jaru peoples have known and used the area for at least 20,000 years. Access is dry-season only, via a 53-kilometre unsealed road that requires 4WD.
Solo
Walking alone into Cathedral Gorge and hearing your own echo return from 200-metre sandstone walls — Purnululu amplifies solitude.
Couple
A landscape that was hidden from the world until 1983, shared between two people in a park that limits visitor numbers by its very remoteness.
- Orange-and-black striped beehive domes rise 200 metres — formed by 20 million years of erosion.
- Cathedral Gorge opens into a natural amphitheatre with a permanent pool and cathedral-like acoustics.
- The park was unknown to non-Indigenous Australians until a film crew spotted it from the air in 1983.
- Access is dry-season only via a rough 4WD track — the remoteness is preserved, not contrived.
Camp cooking at Walardi or Kurrajong — meals prepared under boab trees with the domes glowing orange at dusk.
Kununurra town — stock up on Ord River mangoes and barramundi before the 4WD track south.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Strahan
Australia
Cruise the Gordon River past Huon pines that were saplings when Rome was still a republic.
Maria Island
Australia
A car-free island where Tasmanian devils roam free and convict ruins crumble into wildflower meadows.
Dampier Peninsula
Australia
Red pindan dirt meets turquoise sea at Aboriginal communities where the country is still the boss.
Sydney
Australia
Ferries carve blue water between surf beaches and opera sails as cockatoos screech overhead.