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Gallery: an April selection (2023)
As well as being a successful novelist and poet, Vita Sackville-West is known for the beautiful gardens she created at Sissinghurst in Kent. She will have welcomed April as all gardeners do … but maybe not the April we have had this year.
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Gallery: on the Narayani River
In the early morning mist we drifted slowly with the current, our boat man using his single oar simply to steer us. Here on the Narayani River, which skirts the northern boundary of Chitwan National Park in Nepal, the setting was beautiful, the atmosphere tranquil.
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Gallery: the rippling of rivers
There is something magical about the sound of flowing water. Whether tumbling over rocks or moving more sedately, whether young and vigorous or older and more serene, a river has the power either to exhilarate and to calm.
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Misadventure on the Rio Nosara
The electric boat moved almost noiselessly along the Rio Nosara. The birds on the banks seemed largely unaware of our presence. The sounds of the forest were all around us. But suddenly there was a thud somewhere beneath our feet and the boat slowed, then stopped.
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The sun sets and the sun rises over the Chobe River
The wide waters of the Chobe River form the northern boundary of the national park of the same name. They divide Botswana from its neighbour Namibia to the north. But of course the wildlife that teems on its shores, in its waters and in the skies above knows no national borders. And nor does the sun, which sets and rises on all.
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Following the River Tyne to Ouseburn
In recent years the development that first started around the central part of Newcastle’s Quayside has spread eastwards. And the area around where the smaller Ouseburn flows into the Tyne, in particular, has benefitted from regeneration. It makes a great destination for a stroll along the river, and there’s plenty to see when you get there. It’s only about a 15 minute walk from the Tyne Bridge to the mouth of the Ouseburn, although you’re bound to stop along the way.
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King John was not a good man: Runnymede
The barons of early 13th century England would have agreed with A. A. Milne (the creator of Winnie the Pooh) that 'King John was not a good man'. In 1215 England was in political turmoil. King John had become vastly unpopular; his disagreements with the Pope over the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury led to a papal interdict against the country and the king’s excommunication, while the imposition of high taxes to fund the war with France led to mounting anger.
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Where the gods descended: Kamikochi
Nestled among the dramatic peaks of the Japanese Alps lies the high plateau of Kamikochi; the name means ‘Where the gods descended’. The Azusa River flows through a valley formed by great elemental upheavals, including glaciers and volcanic eruptions, over many thousands of years.
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Newcastle: a city and its river
Rarely is a city defined so clearly by one single feature in the way that Newcastle-upon-Tyne is defined by its river. The city’s history has been shaped by the river, especially by shipbuilding; and now that the ship-yards are largely lost to history, the life of the city, especially its cultural and social life, continues to flow from the banks of the Tyne. A favourite walk in the city is along the Quayside past the Tyne’s famous bridges.
