Pic’n’Post n° 37

As announced yesterday, this is the last Pic’n’Post, at least for a good while. When it returns, the format will be different (no, I’m not telling you now…). Mainly because I’m running out of pictures, at least for the Where? – the What? are easier to find. This is borne out by last week’s picture, scraped from the bottom of the barrel, which only attracted one guess. But what a guess that was! Matt, with the Piton de la Fournaise in La Réunion, could not have been closer. He’s therefore the very worthy winner of the final edition of Pic’n’Post in its current format.

A few more pictures of the very active Piton de la Fournaise, which rumbles and grumbles several times a year, but last threw a big hissy fit in 2006.

Congratulations, Matt!

You may have noticed that there hasn’t been a picture from the Americas in the whole Pic’n’Post series. The thing is, it’s been a dozen years since I set foot there, and the last time I did, it wasn’t with a digital camera but a camcorder. So I have plenty of wobbly footage that makes you seasick, but no photos. Oh, well. My sincere apologies to the inhabitants of the New World.

Pic’n’Post: Slime and Pterodactyls

The story-teller’s picture. ‘What do you think, Malone? Is this it?’ Lord Roxton gazed down at the emerald green lake, eyes wide with amazement. His companion nodded slowly. He had no doubt. This was it – the end of their long, arduous journey. The reason they’d risked death so many times. At last they had reached their destination.

The picture-taker’s story. The story above isn’t mine, but Conan Doyle’s, published in 1912. I never read the book, but I saw the film as a boy and I was transfixed. Man-eating plants, giant spiders, hostile tribes. The Lost World had it all. In fact, Lake Dziani, in a voclanic crater on Petite Terre, Mayottte, is easier to reach – a fifteen minute climb to the rim, then an hour to walk all around. But as soon as I saw it, I was back in The Lost World. Its green, sulphuric slime teems with life, and it’s forbidden to go down to the edge. We did, of course, bring back a pterodactyl, but unfortunately it escaped. Just like in the film.