This gorgeous waterfall once was the source of power for the Schoolcraft Blast Furnace, a part of northern Michigan’s 19th Century iron boom. A question about the geology of the area led to a lively conversation that involved three rangers at the Munising Falls Visitor Center who told us that the value of the iron mined in Michigan in the 19th Century exceeded the value of the gold extracted during the California Gold Rush. We were fascinated with the Recipe for Pig Iron and curious as to how it was developed. Of note it’s iron in the rocks that yields that orange color behind the falls and that supplied the raw material that became railroad track and fed westward expansion 150 years ago. Today it’s a lovely hike to a beautiful falls.
Queen Mary 2’s arrival in the Port of Dakar, Senegal was heralded in the local press and greeted with ceremony. Our own excursion took us on a coach journey through the streets of the capital city to visit a Wolof village and the shore of Lake Retba, the salty lake famed for an intense pink color.
Today’s safari adventure transported us out into the Dorob National Park to have up close encounters with little creatures that are well adapted to the extreme heat and lack of water in the Namib Desert.
With a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two national parks, dozens of museums, and hundreds of tours offered in the Cape Town area there is more than plenty to do. For our two day visit we opted to concentrate on African wildlife visiting the Aquila Private Game Reserve and the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony for a wonderful chance to these fabulous animals in their own habitat.
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