Love Valley – Seeing is Believing

Love Valley in Cappadocia, Turkey certainly has a claim to fame – a very large one. Rather euphemistically named, the valley is home to rock structures that bear a passing resemblance to… well - make your own mind up. Seeing, as they say, is believing.

Image Credit Flickr User Cachalan

Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) is a region of exceptional natural wonders, none more so than the giant monuments left by Mother Nature in Love Valley. Situated in the very heart of modern day Turkey this natural wonder sits on a high plateau over a thousand meters in altitude. Rainfall is sparse in this area and the place has hot dry summers and bitterly cold snowy winters. There is little rainfall and so the region is generally arid. In this environment these huge phallic natural structures seems like some sort of ancient homage to male fertility. However, they are far from man-made despite the possible resemblance to manhood.

Image Credit Flickr User Astique

The closest human habitation is the small town of Göreme. Although you might expect hordes of tourists visiting such a place this is not the case. The Turkish are gregarious but modest people – you do not get group outings to Love Valley to see the ‘willy shaped’ rocks as you might had they occurred in any number of other countries. As such the town is small and friendly with little commercialization as such. What you will find there, however, is a very genuine and relaxed atmosphere and a warm welcome. Although it is unlikely that you will get lost it is considered the right thing to hire a local guide when you head out to see the local geological features.

Image Credit Flickr User TesKing

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

If you want to see a unique geological site, then this is certainly it – no run of the mill vague shapes here. These structures mean business. And they weren’t made by Mother Nature having a funny five minutes – these strange pinnacles are in fact eroded volcanic ash. You need to be pretty healthy to take all of this is as generally people will go for hikes around the valley rather than driving. If you are really not inclined to healthy walking then you are able – at some expense – to hire a hot air balloon and see the whole site from the skies.

Image Credit Flickr User Queen Esoterica

Image Credit Flickr User Ze Pinho

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

The local people grow apricots and squash for a living and a little from tourism. This is something more than subsistence although the area is still relatively poor in occidental terms. The whole region is rich, however, in thousands of years of continuous human history. It is also the most visually stimulating region of Turkey where the erosion has formed not only these sensuous shapes in the volcanic rock but caves and clefts where people have carved out homes from which they conduct their lives and business. As you can see the structures are not restricted to the ‘Valley of Love’ itself – the town itself boast more than a few.

Image Credit Flickr User Charles Fred

Image Credit Flickr User Charles Fred

The landscape seems foreign – alien almost. You could almost expect Captain James T round a corner followed by a reptilian adversary. One can only imagine Kirk’s knowing reaction to the shapes of these rock formations. Although the landscape looks inhospitable in the extreme the soil is mineral rich. This makes it an ideal place for growing fruit and vegetables which means the whole area of Kapadokya meets a lot of Turkey’s agricultural needs. Turkish wine is on the rise in terms of reputation and Kapadokya has many vineyards and wineries – quite a surprise in a Muslim nation.

Image Credit Flickr User Chars Fred

Image Credit Flickr User Alaskan Dude

When you tire – as well you might – at looking at fifty meter high phallic geology then there are other things to do around the small town of Göreme.

Image Credit Flickr User Rafa

There is an open air museum which can be visited by walking about a mile outside of the town at the edge of Love Valley. There you are in for something of a surprise – seven hundred year old Christian cave paintings. They were produced by monks inside the cave churches that they excavated from solid rock. Altogether it could be said to be one of the world’s more unusual museums. It is a little expensive but worth every Turkish lira.

Image Credit Flickr User Darcy McCarty

Image Credit Flickr User Alaskan Dude

However, it is the strange rock formations outside of the town’s perimeter in Love Valley that people find the most memorable. Kapadokya means the ‘land of the beautiful horses’ in Turkish (and it is advisable to learn a few words and phrases – the locals will appreciate it greatly). Of course, no one comes here to see or trade horses but they come to be inspired by the landscape around them – quite like nothing on earth.

Image Credit Flickr User Ryanxchow

Image Credit Flickr User virtualwayfarer

Most tourists come in the summer, so to see these formations in the snow is quite unusual.

Image Credit Flickr User Dachalan

Image Credit Flickr User Rick Lem

The rock formations are a result of volcanic eruptions in ancient times. Then, millennia of erosion did its work on the igneous rock. Igneous rock is formed when magma (the molten stuff!) cools down and becomes solid. It can – as in the case of Kapadokya – be weathered away and create some rather peculiar – or in this case phallic – geological leftovers.

Image Credit Flickr User CharlesFred

Image Credit Flickr User CharlesFred

It could be suggested that the Cappadocians could have been more forthright in the naming of the valley, but their natural modesty probably forbad it. Love is a universal word, after all, and there is nothing that could be considered remarkable in its resemblance to the female equivalent of these enormous formations in the area. Perhaps ‘Willy Valley’ would just have sounded a little bit silly anyway. After all, hand in hand with Lake Titicaca the world might very well go to hell in an innuendo ridden handbasket.

Image Credit Flickr User vin60

Image Credit Flickr User Jungle Boy

Altogether this area of Turkey offers the visitor a variety of different holiday experiences that are – to say the least – that little bit different. From hiking, biking, to hot air ballooning, Kapadokya offers unusual ways to see the site – and what sights they are.

Image Credit Flickr User Queen Esoterica

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10 Amazing Shark Attack Stories

Every year, there are about sixty shark attacks reported world wide. These are ten of the scariest and most amazing stories of shark attacks ever recorded!

1. His Wet Suit Held His Skin Together

In 1963, freestyle diver, Rodney Fox, was taking part in a spear-fishing competition off the South Australian coast. While diving without oxygen, Fox was grabbed around the middle by a great white shark. Fox fought the shark hard, getting free at one point and having the shark return to bite him again. Fox then wrapped his arms around the beast and was taken for a terrifying ride under the sea as the shark tried to shake him off. The shark had Fox's arm in his mouth, and when he pulled the arm out, his skin was shredded from the bone. Finally, after very nearly drowning, Fox got free and was pulled into a boat. His bones were visible on his right hand and arm, and his rib cage, lungs, and upper stomach were all completely exposed. His rescuers kept his wetsuit on, which kept his internal organs from spilling out, ultimately saving his life. Fox underwent four hours of surgery and received 462 stitches to put his skin back together, but he is still alive today to tell his tale of surviving an attack from one of the world's greatest predators. (Link | Photo)

2. Bethany Hamilton Was Back On Her Board A Month After Losing Her Arm

In 2003, Bethany Hamilton was age 13. She was Hawaii's top female surfer in her age group and one of the best in the United States before being attacked on the morning of Halloween by a 14-foot tiger shark. Bethany was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water when the shark came up from below and bit off her arm at the shoulder. Her friends were able to apply a tourniquet and get help, but she lost over 60 percent of her blood and endured many surgeries in order to recover.
Remarkably, losing her arm did not dissuade Hamilton from surfing, and within a month of her attack she was back on her surfboard. In 2005, Hamilton won her first national title at the National Scholastic Surfing Association National Championships. Her story later became the basis for a big budget Hollywood movie called "Soul Surfer." (Photo)

3. Man K*lled In Front of New Bride While On Honeymoon

Just ten days after getting married, British honeymooners Ian and Gemma Redmond were enjoying a tropical beach vacation in Seychelles, when tragedy struck. Thirty-year-old Ian Redmond was snorkeling just twenty yards off shore while his new wife sunbathed on the beach. Redmond was attacked by a shark, which bit off one arm and destroyed one of his legs. It is thought that Redmond died instantly, though he was quickly pulled from the water into a boat, and a doctor on the beach applied first aid until emergency medical crews arrived. Redmond's hysterical new wife was restrained by the crowds of people on the beach while workers attempted to save her husband. (Link | Photo)

4. Man Punches Shark In Face To Escape

Twenty-eight year old Hawaiian resident Joshua Holley was surfing at his favorite spot off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii's North Shore, when a 10-foot tiger shark bit his left foot. Instinctively realizing what he needed to do, Holley hauled off and punched the shark twice in the face, and the shark swam away. Holley suffered some severed tendons in his foot which required 42 stitches to repair, but the shark did not bite any major arteries. In spite of his attack, Holley says he will return to the water and feels no animosity towards the shark, saying, "You have to remember when you're in the ocean you have to respect the ocean, that's where they eat, live, breed; we're just visitors in their home." (Link | Via | Photo)

5. Diver Survives Attack By Fending Off Shark With Camera

Conservationist and professional underwater photographer and diver, Russell Easton, was photographing a 12-ft tiger shark in the Bahamas when suddenly his camera's viewfinder showed a huge mouthful of sharp teeth! The shark bit into Easton's camera, so the diver shoved the camera further into his mouth and was able to swim away to safety.
Despite the terrifying incident, the diver says he doesn't think the shark was trying to hurt him; rather, the shark was just trying to figure out what he was by using his mouth like we would use our hand. (Link | Photo)

6. Dolphins Save Swimmers From Shark

While on a training swim about 100 metres off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on the North Island of New Zealand, lifeguard Rob Howes said he and three female lifeguards were surrounded by a pod of dolphins who were acting very strangely. The dolphins circled around the swimmers and began beating the water with their fins, causing the water to be a churning mass of dolphins and bobbing human heads. Howes managed to get outside the circle of dolphins, and that's when he spotted a huge great white shark a short distance away. As the shark moved closer to the women in the water, the dolphins became even more agitated and "went into hyperdrive." The shark finally swam away when a rescue boat approached, but the dolphins did not leave the scene until all of the swimmers were safely back on dry land. (Link | Photo)

7. Man Captures Attack On Film

In 1964, Henri Bource and two other divers were swimming with seals in the ocean off Lady Julia Percy Island in Australia, when a great white shark suddenly appeared and bit off his leg at the knee. His diving partners got Bource onto the boat, and incredibly, the rescue was videotaped.

Warning: this video is not for the squeamish!

Bource was an amateur underwater photographer and filmmaker, and he eventually took the film footage from the attack and reconstructed the other parts for a documentary called "Savage Shadows."
(Link | Photo)

8. Man Loses Leg and Becomes Shark Preservation Advocate

On Aug. 4, 2001, while vacationing with his wife on Grand Bahama Island, Wall Street banker Krishna Thompson was attacked by a shark and dragged out to sea. When the shark pulled him under the water, Thompson knew he had to take action to save his own life, so he pried the shark's mouth open and punched it twice in the nose. The shark released him and he was able to get himself to shore, but sadly his leg was so damaged it had to be amputated.

Now, nearly ten years after his attack, Thompson has become an advocate for the preservation of the species, saying that "Sharks set the balance for the whole ocean." (Link 1 | Link 2 | Photo)

9. Shark Attack De*th Blamed On Reality TV Show

In April 2012, a production crew for the National Geographic channel was filming the television reality show "Shark Men" off the coast of South Africa. Reportedly, they were attracting sharks to the area by dumping gallons of fish parts ("chum") into the water. The production company had permits for chumming and filming, however, just a few days after chumming the waters, a local 20-year-old champion body boarder named David Lilienfeld was killed by a 13-to-16-foot shark in waters that had not previously seen shark activity since 1999.

Local residents were outraged, and the show's research permit was immediately revoked. The show "Shark Men" continues to receive criticism and has been cancelled. (Link | Photo)

10. Brave Mother Pulls Daughter From Jaws of Shark

In March of 2012, a mother and her 15-year-old daughter were sitting on their surfboards off the coast of New Smyrna Beach in Florida when a shark suddenly pulled the teen underwater. Acting quickly, Valeh Levy grabbed her daughter Sydney by the shoulders and pulled her up onto her own surfboard. The shark continued to circle until rescuers heard the mother's screams for help and chased it away. The teenager required surgery on her foot, but is expected to make a full recovery. (Link | Photo)

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Incredible Pictures Show the Moment Unwary Seagull was Eaten by an OCTOPUS After Bird Settled on the Sea

An unusual life and de*th duel between a giant Pacific octopus and a tragic seagull which finished with an unlikely victory for the eight-armed mollusc has been captured on camera.

Doing battle off the Pacific coast of Canada at Victoria's Ogden Point breakwater, the octopus was seen to violently envelop the bird with its tentacles, drown it and then pull it to its watery grave.

Standing 10ft away was amateur photographer Ginger Morneau, who managed to capture the entire brutal display from mother nature and post it online, creating a viral storm.

The seagull is fighting for survival after its head was grabbed by the Pacific octopus off the coast of Victoria, Canada

Standing around ten feet away from the duel, photographer Ginger Morneau captured the seagulls futile struggle to survive as the octopus grabbed onto its prey

Compelled by the tussle, which last just under one minute, Morneau had to fight off the urge to intervene and free the bird and watched helplessly as the fight ended in cruel defeat for the seagull.

'It was a stunning moment, to be sure,' said Morneau in The Vancouver Sun.

Also witness to the gruesome de*th were Morneau's husband Ken and her brother Lou Barker.

'We were strolling along and talking,' continued Morneau.

'I saw the bird in the water and it looked like he was pecking at something underwater.'

Having not surfaced for air since the octopus grabbed its head, the seagull was facing a losing battle to survive

Photographer Ginger Morneau thought about intervening in the battle between the pair but realised she couldn't get to the shore quickly enough

Quickly realising that the bird had not come up for air, the group looked closer.

'That was the odd part. That's what made us step forward and we realised there was an octopus,' said Morneau.

Grabbing her camera, Morneau started taking pictures as the seagull's head was engulfed in the octopus' arms.

'It was apparent that it was going to lose,' explained Morneau.

Thinking about intervening, Morneau could not get down to the rocks quickly enough to try.

'It's that horrible situation to watch, like a car wreck, it was so primal and gut wrenching,' said Morneau.

'The hair was standing up on the back of my neck.'

The seagull has been drowned by the octopus and the water lies still around the dead bird

The octopus pulls his prey under the water after winning its unlikely struggle against the seagull

Initially fighting with all its might to free itself, the seagull gave once last jerk before it died and was pulled under the water by the octopus.

'It dropped like a stone,' said Morneau.

'And then it was just gone, were shocked and awestruck, we couldn't believe what we had just seen.

'At one stage, a flock of seagulls flew overhead as their friend was dying. They were waiting, I guess, for scraps.'

Leaving the deathly quiet scene, Morneau, her husband and brother enjoyed a lunch of calamari to toast the success of the octopus.

'Then, when we came home at the end of the day, I wondered what kind of similar pictures could be out there (on the Internet) and I couldn't find a single image of an event like this,' said Morneau.

Photographer Ginger Morneau caught the chance encounter on camera and posted it to 'Bird Fellow Journal' who put the encounter on their twitter feed

Reflecting on the fight, Morneau was philosophical: 'It is the unknown. It is the murky depth. It comes up from down below,' said Morneau to Global News.

'It broke barriers. It broke the element of sea and air. It broke the rules.'

The Giant Pacific octopus is the largest octopus species and adults can weigh up to 15 kilograms and have an arm span of up to four metres.

Their usual prey is shrimp, crabs, scallops and fish.

'It was really sad at that final moment,' said Morneau to The Canadian Press.

'For as wonderful nature is, nature can be deadly.'

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The 5 Most Badass Man vs. Nature Showdowns Ever Photographed

It's easy to forget how ludicrously terrifying the natural world can be, and how very small we are in the face of it. When confronted with the grand, humbling, massive and occasionally deadly power of our planet, what can one measly little human being do? Run? Cry? Not these people. These people saw all the might and majesty of Mother Nature laid out before them and said: "Eh. Pretty sure I can take the bitch."

5. The Eternal Lightning Fields

Greek Sky

In Venezuela, just above the mouth of the Catatumbo River, a lightning storm has been raging for at least two centuries. I know that sounds like science fiction, or some hackneyed fantasy villain's lair -- but it's real. For 160 nights out of the year, the Catatumbo lightning strikes for 10 straight hours, at a rate of nearly 300 strikes per hour. Short of trees growing in the shape of a human skull or a good ol' screaming bog, that is the single best way Nature knows to tell you a place is cursed.

And it's fucking populated!

Thousands and thousands of people swung by the Earth's only eternal storm, plunked down their packs and said, "Welp: Looks like as good a place as any to settle down and raise some kids." But simply living beneath an electric sky wasn't nearly hardcore enough for the owner of this shack:

Thechemicalengineer

He didn't just buy property in the Lightning District; he moved out into the water, constructed a tiny hovel in the middle of that giant bathtub with God's old toaster perched permanently above it and then built himself a metal roof.

George Kourounis, Stormchaser

I don't know who the owner of the world's least insurable home is, but I know where you can find him: standing on his front porch with thimbles on both of his middle fingers, drunkenly flipping off the gods.

4. The Storm of the Century

BBC

It seems like we, as a global culture, only recently came to understand just how terrifying and destructive the ocean could be. Sure, we were aware of how serious ocean-based disasters were objectively -- but subjectively, a lot of us didn't really take it to heart. We failed to grasp that the ocean is like the Earth's Wite-Out: a tide that occasionally, almost casually, washes whole countries away. I think that's because we didn't have the right visuals, but that all changed with the recent tsunamis and their extensive video coverage. Now we finally understand the ocean, and the horrible destruction of which it is capable.

Well, some of us do, anyway. Others see the unleashed potential of countless billions of tons of surging water and think, "Man, wouldn't it be funny if I rode that?"

BBC

In late 2004, Cornwall, England, suffered through several record-breaking storms: 70 mile an hour winds, flooding, waves so large they crashed over the promenade -- but the vast and bottomless rage of Nature is nothing when compared with human boredom. So here's some dudes surfing it:

Daily Mail

Look at the size of that breaking wave in relation to the surfers. They're so insignificant that the ocean didn't even mean to kill them; that's just how Poseidon steps on ants. To think you could possibly survive (much less ride) something like that takes not only a complete misunderstanding of physics, but a total failure to grasp the basic concept of scale itself. That's the biggest storm the world could throw at you, and you tragically mistook it for a vehicle. But holy shit, you're doing it! You're reall-

Daily Mail

Oh. Yeah, I guess that's about how you'd expect things to turn o-

Daily Mail

Jesus, dude. That looks like a frog getting hit by a truck. It looks like it actually went worse than I initially thought, and I initially thought you'd wipe out so hard that you'd literally cease to exist in the annals of human history.

I never imagined your leg would bend like that, though; that's messed up.

3. The Nyiragongo Volcano

PhotoVolcanica

Volcanoes are pop culture shorthand for evil. Need to signify somebody's an evil badass? Volcano lair. Need to smelt up some corrupting rings? Volcano forge. Got too many virgins lying around and Waste Management Services refuses to do curbside pickup? Volcano sacrifice. It's perhaps the single most terrifying landmark on the planet. Here's a guy casually strolling across one.

National Geographic

"H-hello? I'm trying to get to the Jamba Juice on Hawthorne, is this ...? Shit. I am literally as lost as anybody could ever be."

That's an expedition member walking on freshly cooled lava in the Nyiragongo volcano. But don't worry, the ground isn't actually glowing like hellfire itself -- that's just an optical illusion. The ambient red light is merely the reflection of the giant lake of still-molten lava just out of frame. The photographer described being inside the volcano as "a constant, low frequency rumble -- like being inside a giant subwoofer."

I assume he then added, "... made out of liquid fire."

I assume he then added a little bit of pee.

2. Truck-Hurling Tornado

I sincerely hope "Don't fuck with tornadoes" is not new and helpful information to any of you readers. We've all seen Twister, and though we know that they were exaggerating a little bit with the special effects -- whole, intact houses and boats don't really whirl about cartoonishly thousands of feet in the air -- it's still a pretty scary phenomenon. As it turns out, however, Twister was actually a tastefully understated flick. Here's an actual tornado in Dallas, Texas, whipping full-size big rigs thousands of feet in the air like a giant invisible toddler throwing a tantrum.

That just doesn't look real. It looks like a physics glitch in a video game. It's like the cosmos turned on Hacks; like somebody forgot to CGI in Godzilla.

But this is an article about people braving the fury of the natural world -- tiny little Davids spitting in the eye of Mother Nature's Goliath. So where's the human element here? Well, you have to look closely at that video again, at about 1:25, on the lower right:

And you'll see a little white car cruising by -- not even speeding, mind you -- just moseying along Main Street. Now turn your gaze a few inches up and to the left, and observe a fucking semi hurtling through the air. Sure, there are other cars later in the clip, but they're much farther out and might not be aware that traffic conditions are currently "in the sky." Really look at the angles of that screencap with the white car again; this isn't somebody caught unaware. They can clearly see the 18-wheeler that just took these broken wings and learned to fly again ... and they do not care. They do not give one lonely shit that somebody just up and reversed gravity on them. They're going to goddamn Blockbuster, come hell or high trailer.

Holy shit, did they just ... did they just signal?

1. A Fall from Space

For anybody who's ever stopped to really consider it, the mere existence of space -- with its fathomless depths and incomprehensible scale -- is enough to trigger a fire hose of existential fear vomit. I once saw a diagram of the actual distance between Earth and the moon and spent an hour hiding beneath my bed. In contrast, here's Joseph Kittinger, gleefully jumping the bitch:

Source.

Kittinger was part of Project Excelsior, an experiment to study extreme high altitude bailouts. The project involved an open gondola suspended by helium balloons that brought Kittinger up over 100,000 (not a typo; one hundred thousand) feet in the air. That's 19 miles, straight up. In a previous, lower altitude jump, his limbs generated G-forces more than 20 times that of Earth's gravity. Once he left the gondola, it took him nearly 15 minutes to hit the ground. He broke the speed of sound ... with his torso. That image of the distant curve of the Earth up there at the start of this entry? That's not taken from the space station. That was Joseph Kittinger's helmet cam.

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"Haha, I'ma git you, Earth!"

I went skydiving once. They had me crawl out onto the wing of a shaky little prop plane, wind howling and ripping at my clothes, and when I was far enough out, the instructor said: "Now, let go." To which I answered: "Fuck you." Joseph Kittinger went up in a tiny balloon, and when he reached space, somebody said, "Now, step out there and try to aim for the planet." And he said, "Sure thing!"

I've actually pinpointed it: The bravest nanosecond in human history. Those are his white boots up top, just leaving the platform.

It takes enormous balls to even get on that vehicle -- what is, essentially, a rickety little basket with no handrails, tied to a bunch of balloons. It takes even bigger balls to voluntarily ride that son of a bitch higher than air goes. It takes balls of incomprehensible proportions -- balls whose non-Euclidean geometry simply cannot exist on our earthly plane -- to look down at a planet so far below you that you can actually make out the shape of continents, then step outside for a stroll.

Those kinds of balls do exist, but only in an alternate dimension, parallel to ours but wholly separate, of which we mere mortals can comprehend only the smallest piece. The avatar of that vast dimension comprised entirely of great and majestic testicles has a name, but it cannot be pronounced by the human tongue. So you can just call him "Joe."

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