UKH

Have you ever stumbled across a picture of somewhere in the world and it just completely blows your mind? So much so that for a split second, you find it hard to believe that it's a real place?

I recently discovered the Terra Incognita podcast hosted by Matt Pycroft (highly recommend btw) and have just started season two where among other things, the show documents a 2019 expedition to Mount Roraima in South America lead by Leo Houlding.

The podcast describes Mount Roraima (admittedly a place I had never before heard of) as being the inspiration behind Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. On hearing this, I thought I would quickly google the location and it just totally blew my mind. The land formation is just incredible. 

Personally, I think it's great to be constantly surprised and to know that in that even in today's highly broadcasted world there is always more for us to see.

Which places have you seen for the first time and found it hard to believe as being a real life location?

Cumbernauld.

I went to Meteora, Greece for the first time a couple of years ago, and even though I had seen photos of it I was stunned by the place,

Chris

Drove through Meteroa in Greece while on a kayaking trip. Had never heard of it or seen a picture of it. We stopped and wandered around open mouthed for a couple of hours. 

I remember driving into yosemite years ago also on a kayaking trip. My friend said "that's my screensaver"! We weren't really there for the sightseeing but it was pretty cool. 

I visited yangshuo based on a picture and was pretty impressed. 

Ha! It kind of blew my mind enough to Google it when I was little.

I remember being jaw dropped years ago at photos of Cerro Torre.

Lots of stunning pics of the Faeroes

As a place of peace and utter beauty Tengboche monastery must surely be almost in a class of its own.

As a hill lover and canoeist, the first time I saw Rapadalen in Sarek NP in a picture, had me gobsmacked, with the braided river winding through this spectacular Scandinavian valley. This is only a few years back. Unfortunately it seems you can't paddle the actual valley, not that the logistics of getting to the top would be easy anyway! It has inspired me to be planning other trips in the area though.

Yosemite still does this for me, despite the popularity. I was perhaps fortunate to have only really seen it in a few books, and of course in Ansel Adams' fantastic pictures, before going there just before the rise of the internet. It was just as good as we hoped.

As a youngster, the big picture of An Teallach's Corrag Bhuidhe, Lord Berkeley's Seat and Sgurr Fiona in Butterfield's High Mountains book was a serious inspiration, as I'd no idea we had mountains that looked like that in the UK. Similarly for the first picture I saw of The Imposter on Clach Glas.

How could I forget, I have a picture of it on my bedroom wall blown up from a postcard as pre digital cameras and my pictures didn't come out that well. Again I had no idea about it before I got there. 

I'd like to see that monastery near leh in the gorge above the Zanskar River, can't remember the name now...

Reminded me of a Sgurr nan Gillean in Cameron McNeish's Munros book, I think the photographer was Colin Baxter? It had an early season dusting and some amazing stormy light. Blew me away. 

There are some truly unbelievable sights to be seen underground from huge chambers and passages to deep pitches and fantastic formations. If you ever get a chance to go down Gaping Gill in the Dales on one of the Bank Holiday winch meets then do it. The general public get a chance to see what is normally only open to cavers. However impressive this seems though (and it is) it is puny on a world scale. One place I regret not visiting is Lechuguilla Cavern in New Mexico. The formations in the Chandelier Room are unbelievable - vast and like nothing else on Earth. Google it and see.

I'd agree with that. What a place to have born in and lived, unaware that it was anything exceptional. Lots of other places in the Himalaya as well.

When I stood at Tunnel View I thought it was Disneyesque https://ambitionearth.com/looking-at-the-breathtaking-tunnel-view-in-yosemi... , too perfect.

What’s it called?

As already mentioned, Yosemite - though for me the real show-stopper was driving up to El Cap. I defy any climber not to have to pull over to avoid crashing the car, since it's impossible to take your eyes off it on that first meeting.

In the Alps, the Aiguille Dibona always pulls me up short when it finally appears, like the spire of a granite cathedral in that wild cwm.

Finally, can I have the Sistene Chapel - there are times when art can match the beauty and grandeur of the natural world.

Showing your age there!  

Yes, but this one just happens to have the Mother Goddess of the World in the immediate background ....

I remember the first time I saw an image of Cerro Torre, it was like looking at a fantasy vision of a mountain. I think it’s was in an article able the Maestri controversy, which probably added to the mystique of it. I was determined to see it for myself. It took about 20 years, but I got there about a decade ago.

+1 for Yosemite. I was expecting it to be very touristy (which it was), but the sheer scale of the place was incredible. You can't look up at El Cap or Half Dome and not be awe struck.

Looking away from the valley across the rest of the NP also gave a sensation of infinite wilderness.

However looking east from Cape Wrath felt very similar.

First time to the alps, first time to Yosemite, first (only) time to Skye - all blew me away. And coming into the empty Gaping Ghyll's main chamber from Bar Pot - "visiting the cathedral". Awesome

The latest jaw dropper though is a screen saver on an AppleTV - Wulingyuan National Park in China. Always stops me from whatever I'm reading. Absolutely stunning. 

edit : to add GG

We are talking about running it this Summer.... Covid permitting.... there is a fair bit of prep so it isn't simple. We set up a state of the art hydraulic winch in the middle of (england) nowhere. Planned public dates are 13 to 20 August. Last summer we had a cavers only meet with rigged entrances for srt  able. If you are interested do get in touch. (I'm  craven pothole club chair).

Wow, that is remarkable. Another on the list then....

Yep, Yosemite did not disappoint. Its scale is stunning - and as a climber you'll know all the landmarks from the mags long before arrival. However, when you get there nothing prepares you for how massive El Cap is.

Better still, driving past El Cap in the dark means you get to see head-torches dotted all the way up and you'll know the routes everyone is on from having studied the guidebooks years before!

Also, standing at the base of The Old Man of Hoy as a 16 year old kid was pretty mind-blowing. Original Route - cracking adventure. 

I know. Been a long weekend.
Ed: thanks for noticing though. Would’ve fallen on deaf ears otherwise. 

I sat truly gobsmacked when I walked round a corner and got my first sight of Cerro Torre. None of the photos had prepared me for its improbable magnificence.

I think the true test of something being truly jaw-dropping is when it exceeds all expectations gained from photos and lives up to the hype rather than, as all too often happens, slightly disappoints. Applies to man-made things as well such as Tutankhamun's death mask.

Zion National Park is a place that I guess is generally overlooked due to its relative proximity to The Grand Canyon NP.

I'm lucky I got one of the last trips down Cova des Pas de Vallgornera  in Mallorca 

Funnily enough the Grand Canyon left me decidedly underwhelmed on my first visit, I think because just standing on the edge of it in average light failed to get across its scale. It was only on a later return visit, seeing the changing light and walking into it that it grew on me as I appreciated just how vast it is.

One place that really blew me away was finding myself isolated (and jet-lagged) with my climbing partner on the Kahiltna Glacier below Mt Foraker less than 24 hours after leaving the UK; the scale was staggering.

Really?

I went about 25 years ago... and I thought it was on the back of an article by you in High!

Good to hear that it's still open despite persistent rumours of closure for climbing.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ytjg627OGrU&

That’s made my evening!

I'll never be able to visit (closed to visitors and I think sealed off now) but the Cave of Crystals in the Naica mine in Mexico is rather mind-boggling. 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/mexico-giant-...

Red Square, Moscow. (And the Kremlin). Stunning, and worth the trip 

Easter Island. Really worth the long trip. Needs several days there, and also a hire car, to get away from the bus/ coach tours and so you can be alone at the best sites on the island 

Another place that exceeded my expectations and that I've always wanted to go back to: Joshua Tree. So beautiful I could forgive what the grades did to my ego and the crystals did to my skin. Like the Roaches on steroids... or maybe acid.

A few for me that from seeing on photos or film inspired  me to visit and felt the reality was even more stunning than the inspiring images.

Devil's Tower, Wyoming. - looked like a painted back drop as it came into view at sunset on the horizon after driving across the Midwest.

Gunung Rinjani, Lombok - active volcano and caldera lake above the clouds.

Purnululu (Bungle Bungles), Western Australia  - a land that time forgot or created by aliens.

Great Wall, China - scale of the thing and it’s age still can’t get my head round.

Ankor Wat, Cambodia - the best till last, very special place.

 Cheers Chris 

Walking in under Cerro Torre to try to climb Rafael Juarez - just an utterly absurd place.

Edit. Torres del Paine also fairly ridiculous. 

Maybe not a spectacular vista, but the ambience and beauty at the bottom of The Cauldron in Pembroke is pretty mind blowing.

I had the same reaction when I first saw a picture of the 'sugarloaf' aspect of Suilven from the Lochinver side: I didn't believe that was in the UK.

Yes, on my first trip to Lundy i rushed out as soon as we'd unpacked and jogged up to where I thought the Limekiln was. I topped a small rise , got my first view of it and immediately changed pace to a very careful walk.

The Blue mountains in Australia stick in my mind as having a special ambience that hit me more than any other place I've seen.

I was brought up in Cumbernauld and when I tell people this, it's amazing how often I get that. Even from people who weren't born when those adverts were going around! 

Thanks. I first went down as a 14 year old on the winch and SRT down Main Shaft/Jib Tunnel several times over the next 30 years. Lots and lots of exchange trips via the main chamber and the various entrances. It was always impressive to just walk into the chamber and smell the outside after being underground for hours!

Yosemite has already had a number of mentions, but thinking back to when I was out there, my jaw was just as dropped by Tuolumne. I can think back to three distinct vistas that are forever lodged in my mind: standing on the shores of Tenaya Lake and gazing around at the majestic granite domes surrounding us; looking at the wild backcountry ridges and crests stretching into the haze from the top of Cathedral Peak; and looking down onto the golden meadows rippling in the breeze from the top of Daff Dome, having just climbed the classic West Crack (5.9).

We were watching The Running Pastor as part of the online Banff Film Festival last night and the drone shots of the knife edge ridge and sea cliffs there were amazing. 

The Chinese Wall, Bob Marshall wilderness in Montana is worth a look.

Maybe I'm small minded but it gets blown every time by dramatic cloudscapes and weather conditions, which can transform mundane landscapes into something really quite awesome.

Although far from mundane, my first hill trip as a child was up Glen Rosa (Arran) in November. We climbed to the Saddle and Cir Mhor on a day of black clouds and bright shafts of sunlight glinting on the wet, tawny flanks of Caisteal Abhail and Glen Sannox. At that age, I simply could not believe what I was seeing. They are images I'll never forget.   

Dewsbury

The parents of a premature baby I nursed we're members of the cave rescue team. They organised for any staff members to have a free trip down Gaping Gill on the open day. A few of us went. Terrific day out for us all.👍🏻

I remember visting there in the 90s. Truely stunning, jaw droppingly 'WTF were they thinking!'. I like my concrete and Brutalist architecture but this was so wrong - it missed all the austere beauty, awe & proportion that good Brutalism has (I didn't go to see it for the architecture: a friend lived out there: it was as bad as Blackpool in winter.

The Valley of the Temples in Sicily, after a week climbing we decided to take in some culture! It was stunning, especially as we approached it on foot through the almond groves of the agriturismo we were staying at.

We were also mind blown by Tuolumne, the Domes, Cathedral Peak and the trees.

The Thelon or 'Barren Lands', probably the last untouched and intact eco system left on earth.

Me and Mrs B paddled some of the Thelon several years ago.  No roads, no humans apart from us, no litter, Just hundreds and hundreds of miles of untouched wilderness and millions of animals  & Birds.  

:https://hikebiketravel.com/a-canoe-trip-on-the-remote-thelon-river-nwt/

Has to be the jaw-dropping panorama view of Mt Blanc for the first time when motorcycling over a high pass in the Jura circa 1969. It was approaching sunset and it was just another bend in the road. We just stood looking in awe for maybe 10 minutes without almost saying a word. We cycled up to Zermatt in the dark and pitched our tent, then looking out the next morning all the peaks were first pink and then a golden hue. My first views of the Alps and I was not disappointed!

So true. I was on a survey boat in the middle of the North Sea in 1997 and a huge high pressure moved over us. I awoke the next morning with the boat shrouded in mist. Visibility was 50m in any direction, but amazingly the sea was mill-pond flat. Almost glass like. It stunned me. There was no breeze and not the faintest ripple. Never seen sea so calm.

Las Vegas Boulevard at night.  It's not natural beauty but it definitely hits the 'hard to believe it is a real place' criterion, perhaps even more than Cumbernauld.

As a highly imaginative 14 yr old I likened it to being lowered into the gullet of a huge animal. There have been unintended 'free trips' down GG. Invariably fatal. There was a rumour back in the day that someone had walked across the entrance when snow had drifted over. Could be mythical!

When I first saw Yosemite I thought it was very impressive but it didn't impact me like others have said. I think it may have been that it all looked very familiar as one of the most photographed places on Earth. I almost knew the place before I got there. Still loved it though, especially trekking into the back country.

One of the most depressing experiences of my life was going to Blackpool on Christmas day. Not to stay, just from curiosity as it was too wet to climb. Grim.

And giving it a run for it's money as a depressing experience was the time  doing casual work for a blacksmith when we installed bars on every door and window of a house in Cumbernauld to keep the bad people out while the father/husband of the house was away working off-shore.

Just checking your profile and reckon we may well have crossed paths over the years? I started caving in 1976 and kept it up till the mid 2000s. I did stay in the Craven hut at Horton once or twice as guest of a bloke called 'Parrot'. Bernie's Café and the Fountain (breakfast with beans!) in Ingleton were almost my second homes!

My first experience of the Vegas strip was on a climbing road trip. We'd moved down the Eastern Sierra and through Death Valley and then had been camping for a few days at the Red Rocks site, which is fairly spartan. Driving into the technicolour money temple of Vegas was one of the most dramatic and entertaining culture shocks I've experienced. The Red Rocks campsite feels pretty remote, but it's only about twenty minutes' drive away, and each night you get a free light show from the casino lasers in the desert sky.

vimeo.com/50933058

What a fabulous place! 

I remember flying over Siberia one clear winter's night on the way to Japan, I was glued to the window for hours. Vast, wild, frozen, mountains, huge forests, rivers etc. It was mind blowing.

I never knew there was anything like that in Mallorca. Is it under the sea or fresh water? For truly astonishing stuff it has to be the Blue Holes in the Bahamas or the Yucatan/Belize cenotes.

I once joined a university caving trip to GG.  With the confidence of having abbed down a few biggish crags (including the Old Man of Hoy) I naively declined the over-complicated rack the others were using and used my trusty figure of eight.  To start with, it was a bit of a struggle to get the weight of the wet rope through it, but it gradually got easier.  By the time I could make out the pebbly bottom in the bead of my lamp it was starting to be quite hard to keep control and I had to run a loop of rope round my leg.

By the time I was far enough down to realise the pebbly bottom was actually car-sized boulders, I had the rope round my leg twice and had fully grasped the point about how racks work.  Then we had to dig our way out through Bar Pot because it was so silted up, I though we'd had quite an eventful day.

That was before the second, and final, time I went with them through Swinsto and Kingsdale Great as it flooded and we very nearly got washed past the ladder to the Valley Entrance...

... and as for mind-blowing scenery, the Namib and, in particular, Sossusvlei, is pretty hard to beat.

Underground sites are often dramatically revealed as one pops out of a passage or goes round a corner... I will never forget emerging into the bottom of GG main chamber from Bar Pot, entering the Time Machine Daren Cilau or the frozen deep , Cheddar

It's fossil passage formed in freshwater conditions.... (geological times ago) that has since flooded with sea water following the sea level rises post ice age. 

I've only done the none diving section, but it is swimming most of the way. 

Was discovered by accident when they were laying the sewers for a new housing estate. 

Access was very tight and limited. That entrance is now closed and access is virtually 0 except official resesrchers etc

Tokyo.

Most of Africa has sights to make your day. I'm surprised there have been fewer offerings in the thread. 

A few years ago I cut together a film about Africa and it blew me away. I came away from that feeling like I had a sense for the geography, climate and people of all the different cultures down the length of the continent. I also realised that nobody here talks about these places except in the context of famine, war and maybe Kilimanjaro, which is a great shame.

Edit - I have never been.

The remote Tiras mountains deep in the Namib desert. Probably the most staggeringly beautiful place I have ever been. Though maybe mind-blowing is the wrong term for these desert landscapes - it's more the way the emptiness, silence and peace grows on you.

Yes, especially when an Oryx walks out of the sand dunes.

If you like that landscape try this:

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/travel/visiting-the-athabasca-sand-dunes-in-c...

Stay in the UK!!!!!!

Lots of Oryx grazing these dunes. My favourite animal.

Amazing!

Lac Cadoux, The Grand Eboulis, and The Hall of 13 in the Gouffre Berger in the Vercors.

E

I remember being in the Namib desert (must be 27 years ago) and climbing into the mountains and finding crystal clear limestone rock pools that we went swimming in. 

The Naukluft Mountains? There are some wonderful little rivers that flow a short way before being absorbed by the desert. Oases of lush vegetation and abundant wildlife.

Yep, that's the place. Had my tent trashed by baboons there.

Sausages?

A trip to Svalbard in the winter a few years back provided some amazing sights: Snowmobiling over ice caps and across frozen fjords up to the foot of calving glaciers, abseiling down to the bed of a glacier via it's frozen river channels then ice climbing back out again. However the highlight was hiking to a mountain summit to catch the first sunrise. Standing there in -35, watching the colours change as the Sun briefly rose and fell, frost smoke rising from the fjord far below and snow-covered mountains as far as the eye could see, the tips just bathing in the sunlight, was pretty special.

Closer to home, standing on the pinnacles at Cheddar Gorge takes my breath and makes my heart skip a beat.

Delicious too!

I was on an internal flight over Borneo and at one point all you could see, from horizon to horizon out either side of the plane, was a gridwork of palm oil plants.

Probably the landscape that has had the most impact on me.

Absolutely! I was invited in during a prayer session and it absolutely blew my mind. A truly magic place.

Laguna Colorada in Bolivia. Bright red water, fringed by a rim of white borax, in a landscape that looks like Mars. Add a bit of hypoxia from the 4000m+ altitude, and it’s like a waking dream.

And there’s flamingos 🦩 ...

Middlesbrough

The Naica crystal cave bent my mind when I first saw it. I've seen some pretty cool stuff underground but it's hard to believe that's real.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101008-giant-crystal-cave-s...

The world above the clouds is pretty mind blowing too, it's always a treat to spend some time up there.

jk

Lake Bunyoni in Uganda would be front cover of every tour company's brochure if it was better connected. Absolutely mindbogglingly beautiful.

Back in public eye this week for dictatorship and rigged elections of course

jk