Magnificent Monday: Quirky.

Welcome to Magnificent Monday and this week's theme is 'Quirky'.

Let's have a fun week. You are bound to have some quirky photos, know some quirky facts, or have photos of people or animals in strange moments: let's see them!

Things around here are a little quirky at the moment, but to tantalise and entertain you I have pulled out a few photos from our travels of quirky trees. Yep that's right - trees! The quirky kind!

Check these out.

As expeditionary tree-huggers, we had to hug this tree! 

A place we had always dreamed about, Dead Vlei, Sossusvlei in Namibia is a dried up lake pan, formed when the nearby Tsauchab River receded as the climate changed and the surrounding massive sand dunes caused it to deviate. 1,000 year old camelthorn trees remain standing, the very dry environment arresting the decomposition process.

Dead Vlei is a spectacular photography opportunity, the skeletal weather-blackened trunks contrasting starkly against the towering reddish sand dunes topped with the most intense clear blue skies. It is weird  seeing a whole valley of dead trees standing against the passage of time in such a bare but beautiful place.

The above photo won me a top 10 placing in a Tripadvisor Avatar competition...back when I was more active there and I used it as my avatar.

Not trees but this photo is so quirky! Solitaire, Namibia.

A quirky shower tree! Porcupine Ridge Guest Lodge, near Kruger Park, South Africa. The water flows through the trunk!

Quirky shapes of the Candelabra Euphorbia trees, found in many parts of Africa. This was taken in Ethiopia.

Bret Love reminded me about the quirkiest tree of all- the Baobab. Here we see the baobabs of Nxai Pans, Botswana, made famous by artist and explorer Thomas Baines' painting of 22nd May 1862. When we saw them I can assure you they haven't changed much in 150 years!

This has got to be the quirkiest baobab ever... and the saddest! Up near Broome, northern Western Australia, you'll find the Baobab Jail. This massively swollen ancient baobab bottle, being hollow inside was used to lock up prisoners, during the sad part of early Australian history when Aboriginal men were kidnapped for the mother-of-pearl diving industry. Captives from raids upon Aboriginal settlements inland were held here before continuing on their way to the luggers based in Broome, where they were forced to dive for the pearl shells. The mother-of-pearl shell was very important for combs, buttons, decorative inlays, etc, before the advent of plastics: pearls being a by-product. Today the revival of the industry there is due to the pearl itself, grown with modern techniques.

We're all aware of the quirky tree root covered ruins of Angkor Wat, Cambodia, but how about the root covered walls of the Fasilides' Baths at Gondar, Ethiopia? Looks like a crowd of partying spectators sitting with legs crossed watching the water sports!

Great Wall, China. Now that is the resilience of Nature!

This doorway made famous by Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in 'Tomb Raider', the ruins of the temple complex of Angkor Wat are covered in quirky tree roots.

A quirky toilet tree! A perfect 'U' bend! Spotted squatting beside the road near Maun, Botswana. Definitely been squashed by an elephant when a young sapling.

All above photos I have taken on our travels. But this following one I came across while reading a site on the net. 

 photograph of the Crooked Forest by Maciej Sokolowski

Poland's quirky Crooked Forest. 
Thought to have been done in the 1930's by humans wanting trees to grow with the grain for specific shapes for carpentry, young trees held down then forced to grow into curved shapes. I reckon escaped circus elephants crashed through the forest flattening these trees which then grew crooked! Quirky eh?

How's that for fun quirkiness? Let's see what quirky posts you can link in this week for a fun week.

Next week, our theme for Magnificent Monday, as we are entering the Christmas Season will be - 'Goodwill'.
An opportunity to highlight any article about charities, giving, joy of helping some one or whatever you choose as we enjoy the season of Goodwill, which in my life carries on all year round.

To join in this week's Magnificent Monday-

1. Paste your name and a link to your 'Quirky' article in the Mr Linky tool below.

2. Leave a comment to show you care.

3. It's good etiquette to edit into your article a reference to this article to let your readers know also.

4. Visit each post, leave a comment and share Stumble, Digg, Tweet and Facebook etc so we can all benefit.

Magnificent Monday: Quirky.

Tweet