Threatened wonders of 2010
Wanderlust magazine has come up with the top eight most threatened wonders for 2010.
Some of the most magical places on the Earth have been suffering from too many of us wanting to take a look ourselves.
Here's the list of destinations in need of some TLC.
1. Wadi Rum, Jordan: Over the past two decades the sandstone cliffs and wild spaces of Wadi Rum have drawn increasing numbers in search of desert adventure, but options and infrastructure remain limited.
2. Yangshuo, China: Yangshuo in south-west China used to be the haven away from nearby, touristy Guilin. It was first popular among Western travellers, who came for the fantastic karst limestone scenery, the laid-back atmosphere of the quiet little town, and the easy-going banana-pancake café culture.
3. Tulum, Mexico: When Cancún was built in the 1970s, Mexico's coral-fringed Caribbean coast was home to little more than Maya fishing villages and manatees. Since then tourist conurbations, theme parks and holiday homes have spread ever further south, and local Maya have been disenfranchised.
4. Stonehenge, UK: The monument at the heart of the most significant prehistoric environment in the British Isles is brutally divorced from its context. Nearly a million visitors a year pay an entrance fee to traipse through a concrete underpass from a car park to a remote viewing area near the noisy junction of the A303 and A344.
5. Machu Picchu, Peru: While strict limits have been placed on trekkers taking the Inca Trail to Peru's star attraction, the site itself continues to suffer from its popularity.
6. Jaisalmer, India: This golden fort rising out of Rajasthan's Thar desert attracted 300,000 visitors in 2008: three times as many as ten years ago.
7. Timbuktu, Mali: The drip-drip of security concerns around this iconic Saharan city reached a climax in November 2009, when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office placed Timbuktu and most of northern Mali on its 'Don't Go' list.
8. Bay of fires, Tasmania: After Lonely Planet placed the beech paradise on its 'best spots for 2009' list, state premier David Bartlett announced his plan to turn the area into a national park. But local Aborigines have other plans. They claim the strip, which is dotted with burial sites and middens, as their own.
For more information on these threatened wonders - and for a few suggestions of places you might want to check out (Zimbabwe anyone?) - click here.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
I and my mum took a fabulous trip to India the previous year or so, every single thing has been very perfect at this time there. My father and i drive a lot all around and even been to a fabulous quite a few big Sanctuarys. We previewed various little tigers, India elephants and as well a lot other pretty creatures inside. Finally , the flora and fauna in Northindia is usually lovely and simply very varied. In lots of regions it is usually really green-colored together with a large number of floras, located in other parts now there are actually dessert locations. On the foothills you might find quite a few especially extraordinary and attractive flowers and as well trees. All of us as well enjoyed a couple of nice working days in Goa on a beach, the water was in fact really clean and all of the people truly friendly.