Those who are Awake live in a state of constant amazement. Jack Kornfield
To stand rapt in wonder and awe is to me one the most priceless aspects of being human. Below are some of the times I have experienced wonder.
Wildlife experiences
- Encounters with great white bears in the Arctic
- A beautiful leopard coming right up to my car window in the Kruger National Park
- Soaring condors at Colca Canyon (Peru)
- Swimming with wild dolphins and a whale at Llandadno (South Africa).
- Swimming with a turtle in Dahab's Blue Hole (Sinai, Egypt)
- Snorkeling with turtles at Barbados and Galapagos Islands
- Seeing thousands of flamingos in Ngorongoro Crater (Africa)
- Watching hundreds of hummingbirds in Mindo, Ecuador
- Walking amongst a colony of half a million Megellanic Penguins at Puerto Tombo in Patagonia, Argentina
- Hundreds of thousands of sea birds (including beautiful Inca terns) at the Ballestas Islands (Ecuador)
- Photographing Horses in the Mist in Ecuador
- Snorkeling with penguins, sharks, turtles and rays and getting close and personal with tortoises and marine iguanas in the surreal islands of Galapagos
- Seeing millions of Soldier Crabs on a beach in Newcastle (Australia)
- Dolphins doing somersaults in the ocean.
- Snorkelling and seeing multi-colored, tropical fish in the crystal clear waters of Bonito (Brazil)
Natural wonders
- The mighty power of the Augrabie Falls (South Africa), Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) and Iguazu Falls (Argentina)
- The enormous blue gums in Shanon National Park (Australia)
- Watching huge chunks of ice fall of the Morraine Glacier
- Exploring hallucinogenic salt deserts, spurting geysers and eerie lagoons around the Uyuni Salt pans (Bolivia)
- Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
- The awe inspiring stars on The Orange River (Namibia)
- Richard Attenboroughs´s documentaries, especially "Blue Planet" and "Life of Birds."
- Photographing the amazing 12 Apostles in different light.
- Overnighting at Hanging Rock to watch its reflection of the dawn light.
- Circumventing the islands of Svalbard in The Arctic.
- Sun rising over the pillars of Torres del Paine (Chile).
- Hiking into the stunning Fitzroy Mountains in Argentina.
- Diving in the Canyon and the bottomless Blue Hole in the Red Sea (Sinai, Egypt)
Manmade wonders
- Seeing Tutankamin's treasures in the Museum of Cairo (Egypt)
- Seeing the Taj Mahal
- My first sight of Abu Simbel and The Pyramids (Egypt)
- The ceiling of The Sistine Chapel (Rome)
- The amazing Meteora monasteries, perched on the top of huge boulders (Greece)
- Sunrise over the sacred and mysterious city of Machu Picchu (Peru)
- Seeing the world's tiniest bible and a statue of Peter with his foot rubbed away at the Vatican (Rome, Italy)
- The Tomb of Queen Nefertiti with wall art that looked like it had been painted yesterday. (Luxor, Egypt)
- The sunrise over Angkor Wat
- Temples consumed by the jungle in Cambodia.
