With its untamed landscapes & unsurpassed bounty of wildlife, Africa has long fascinated us. Stanley & Livingstone tackled its manifold challenges, Karen Blixen made it her home & wrote about it in Out of Africa, & Ernest Hemingway's African adventures inspired much of his writing. At a time when our earth's fragile balance is in jeopardy, Africa is a more precious natural commodity than ever before. This stunning volume introduces readers to the rich & varied ecosystems of Africa through specially commissioned photographs that depict its diverse wildlife refuges & nature sanctuaries. Spectacular, large-scale colour photographs bring to life the pink flamingos of Nakuru Lake, the hippopotami of the Niger River, & the last remaining virgin forest, in Odzala in Congo, demonstrating the awe-inspiring beauty & inestimable significance of eco-regions across Africa. ...

If we consider Europe & Asia as two distinct continents, then there are seven continents in all, scattered across Earth. In fifth place, in size order, is Antarctica. For centuries it went unnoticed; humankind took little note of its existence until the beginning of the 19th century. It had long been Terra Incognita Australis: The Great Unknown Southern L&, situated somewhere in the Western Ocean. It was uninhabited by any native populations; it was visited by very few mariners or explorers. It remind, for the most part, a virgin continent, not corrupted. The Antarctic environment is of extraordinary beauty & biological differentiation: flora & fauna have developed interesting strategies to counteract harsh conditions. It`s a world of extremes, cruel pitiless, where many species have to fight hard to survive. In this volume of heroic reportage, Colin Monteath, a renowned writer, photographer & specialist on Antarctica presents the mysteries of the Forgotten Continent. In an outstanding achievement, Monteath took magnificent photographs in temperatures of -40C, in winds that reached 95 mph (150km/h). ...

Ray Mears has travelled the world for much of his life learning & teaching wilderness skills. Now he reflects on his experiences in some of the most remote & beautiful places on Earth along with his own stunning photographs of the landscapes & peoples he`s encountered. Fascinated by photography from an early age, each of Ray`s pictures captures an instant of life, a powerful experience he has compared to hunting
- to releasing the trigger on a rifle. This book reveals our dramatically changing planet & inspires us to look more closely at the changes around us. See our vanishing world through the eyes, ears & camera lens of Ray Mears.
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Published to coincide with the International Polar Year, ” Vanishing World” is an unprecedented visual record of life in the Arctic. Five years in the making, this book is both a celebration of the wildlife that inhabits this harsh & unforgiving climate & a cautionary tale of global warming. Rising temperatures have put areas such as the Artic at risk & the livelihoods of the animals that live there are increasingly threatened. Set against a dramatic landscape of ice floes & ragged mountains, readers will see the polar bears, foxes, seals, walruses & reindeers, who now struggle to live in this vulnerable climate. Images of a polar bear mother as she takes her newborns out for their first hunt, a seal pup only hours old, the spectacle of the polar night & the majesty of the glaciers & pack ice are a reminder of what is at risk. Mireille de la Lez`s stunning photographs are accompanied by text that explains the precarious nature of life in this dramatic climate. No one who sees the images of this vanishing world will be unmoved. ...

Becky Sharp is a poor orphan when she first makes friends with the lovely Amelia Sedley at Miss Pinkerton`s Academy for Young Ladies. She may not have the natural advantages of her companion but she more than makes up for it with her wit, charm, deviousness & determination to make a success of herself whatever the cost. ” Vanity Fair” is the story of Becky`s spectacular rise & fall as she gambles, manipulates & seduces her way through high society & the Napoleonic wars. ...

Sverigeserien is an outdoor map series consisting of 116 sheets with coverage of southern & central Sweden & the northern coastline. The map is suitable for outdoor activities such as hiking, excursions, trail running, hunting, fishing, riding, cycling, mountain biking, paddling, skating & much more. Every sheet covers an area of 45x 68km. These topographical maps in scale 1:50 000 contain all the information needed for outdoor activities: Terrain information, hiking trails, illuminated tracks, camping, shelters, golf courses, leisure baths, historical remains, roads in different categories, railway lines & much more. Easy to read topography with contour lines, vertical interval 5 m. Sverigeserien is a high-quality map series & is durable for frequent use! Updated content with map data from Lantmäteriet (National Land Survey of Sweden) & printed on Polyart which is water & tear resistant. This means that the map can be folded repeatedly without breaking & can withstand the challenging weather in Sweden during both winter & summer. Legend is in Swedish, English & German. ...

Street plan of Vannes at 1:10, 000 in an extensive series of street plans of French towns from Blay-Foldex, the country’s largest, oldest & most experienced publisher of urban mapping. Blay plans include outer suburbs &, where appropriate, adjoining localities forming part of the urban agglomeration & provide brief descriptions of the town’s main sights, contact details for hotels & other places of interest, etc. The plans show one way streets, car parks & pedestrian zones. Important public buildings are clearly marked & identified. Blay street maps are usually double-sided & include an enlargement for the town centre & a street index with separate lists of “edifices publics”: main public buildings, places of worship, schools, sport facilities, stations, etc. Each of the outer suburbs or the adjoining localities, identified with its postcode, has a separate index. Many titles also provide a road map of the environs. All the text is in French only.PLEASE NOTE: to see the list of Blay-Foldex street plans of French towns & cities please click on the series link – the series description also

Includes:: a comparison between Blay & IGN street plans.

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Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

The Rother Walking Guide to the Vanoise alpine region covers the well-known areas around Trois Vallées, Les Arcs & Val d` Isère, as well as the lesser-trodden surrounding regions & the rest of the Vanoise National Park. All of the 52 walks described in the book contain a fact-file of up-to-date information, a detailed route description & a small map marked with the line of the route. The brilliant photos of author & photographer Iris Kürschner provide an excellent impression of every walk & motivate you to go & explore the varied landscape in & around the Vanoise massif. About this series: Rother Walking Guides were first published in 1920- since then Bergverlag Rother have continued to produce these comprehensive guides to “the finest valley & mountain walks”. Each book has a detailed description of walks, small walking maps & many tips on combining the walks, places of interest, accommodation & public transport; the guides are all in full colour with varying scales & types of cartography
- the walks themselves vary from day-long hikes to mountain & valley walks, with varying levels of ease & difficulty indicated. Small enough to fit in your pocket, comprehensive enough to take you everywhere; the books are printed in paperback but with a polytex-laminated cover, making them extremely durable too.
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