"WOW" things that actually did make you go "WOW"

Gotta bring balance to the force.

Flying over Siberia made me go wow at how huge it is.

Swimming with dolphins. Did this in NZ and got lucky as a superpod showed up that morning after there having been no dolphins for days. That was completely wow.

X-ray of a Stingray;

utterly alien.

Flasks make me go Wow!

I never fail to be impressed that me tea is still warm several hours into the day. It’s witchcraft!

Seeing a Total Solar Eclipse, that most certainly is a WOW moment that makes you go WOW!

Been to 4 now, and by far the most spectacular one was on Easter Island 2010. Now Easter Island and the giant Moai is a place that will make you go WOW, but combining that with a Total Solar Eclipse…. WOW WOW!

john bumgardner jumping out of that balloon in space

giant sequoia trees

mrsconsequence walking in wearing a wedding dress 😳

Sunset over Durdle door in Dorset. Total take your breath away moment

+1 for a solar eclipse. I went to Portland Bill in 99 for the UK one and we got lucky as a small chink opened up in the clouds just before totality. BIG CHEER.

Most recent WOW was last Thursday’s 700m of night time descending without lights or wheels. 20 or so of us skied down from a meal at the top of the mountain with just the stars, a couple of torches and the headlights of the piste bashers to show us the way.

Spesh epic carbon and anthem giant 29er demos

Yosemite

Loughrigg Fell

OffPiste skiing

San Francisco.
Loved it. Loads to do, great shops (and I hate shopping) stunning scenery and I liked the people.

Grand Canyon – Even better than Malham!

Tate Modern – Londonists are very, very lucky people when it comes to galleries.
This just shades it.

Paris. Lived up to the hype.

Ireland. It’s all true – friendliest people going, stunning scenery and a fantastic atmosphere.
And Beamish.

Rome. Again, exceeded all expectations.

British countryside – still nowhere more beautiful than Northumberland, Scotland, Snowdonia or the Dales.
We are very lucky indeed.

Glacial lakes in the Canadian Rockies, thought the colours I’d seen in photos must have been enhanced in some way but they were really like that

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Yellowstone

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+1 for a solar eclipse. I went to Portland Bill in 99 for the UK one and we got lucky as a small chink opened up in the clouds just before totality. BIG CHEER.

But Portland Bill was outside the path of Totality! so, although you would have had a very good effect, you did not actually see a Total Solar Eclipse. I was at St Ives for it and though we were clouded out, it went dark. Very dark. Street lights came on, and we were in our own small world of darkness in the middle of the day. That made me want to see what was happening above the clouds and I have been to 3 more – Botswana, Ghana and Easter Island. Sorry for pedantary!

But Portland Bill was outside the path of Totality!

The edge of the area of ‘totality’ is very hard to predict accurately and I can assure you that it was total there. We could see ships lights out to sea and the light house started up. The official prediction was that the area of totality should just brush the tip of Portland Bill. We got far more than that.

Seriously.

Neat or with a mixer?

Swimming with dolphins. Did this in NZ

The first thing I thought of was kayaking with dolphins – also in NZ, but more specifically in Milford Sound – the whole experience was quite magical.

The next one which comes to mind is Carnac. Not sure if it’s quite so good if you’re in a car as you get a bit isolated from it, but we’ve been there a couple of times on a bike tour, so you get to ride along next to the stones and stop where you want. On a similar, but less mainstream note, riding in SW France near Carcassonne and coming round a corner to see an ancient walled citadel perched on a hilltop (Carcassonne itself is good, but not as good as that).

Top of the list though has to be XC skiing in Yellowstone National Park (far, far better than joining the crowds in summer – sorry!) Old Faithful is definitely wow, but getting away from the crowds to less visited parts and seeing hot springs bubbling up through the snow is even better. Not to mention sitting down to eat your lunch on a bit of ground cleared of snow by the thermal activity and having to get up because your bottom is getting too hot!

…actually that reminds me of a last one, Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula in NZ. Dig your own hot pool. Probably made better because we went in August when the beach was virtually deserted and you wouldn’t normally be stripping off to sit in the water.

Machu Picchu appearing from behind low cloud very early in the morning. Bloody amazing sight.

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But Portland Bill was outside the path of Totality!

The edge of the area of ‘totality’ is very hard to predict accurately and I can assure you that it was total there. We could see ships lights out to sea and the light house started up. The official prediction was that the area of totality should just brush the tip of Portland Bill. We got far more than that.

You were there, I wasn’t, according to the above link, the path was 1km off the Bill (closer than I had thought!) Therefore you would have had virtually all the effect, so alopogies.

However, the sheer majesty of the effects of a Total Solar are completely amazing, for me, probably the best natural event on the planet. I am hoping to go to Indonesia for the 2016 Eclipse.

Yellowstone was ok, but not WOW for me.

The Vatican museum wowed me.. mostly it’s just random spots in random places though that do it for me. Too many to list 🙂

go with you rusty on the delights of the British countryside,never get bored…….

When I used to be really fit and could ride fast all day…. and then having one of those days in summer where you really cannot pedal fast enough (in a fast, effortless way) and you are just flying.

Aiguille du Midi cable car and Chamonix valley generally.
Gelert baths Budapest.
Vancouver.
Cuillin mountains on Skye.

Timanfiya in Lanzarote made me go wow. Miles of lava field that appeared overnight and buried a quarter of the island. Awesome. Great place to take a bike.

Volcanic landscapes getting a few votes – I nearly put Whakarewerewa thermal springs and the glacial lakes in NZ but I already had one NZ “wow” thing.

Carnac menhirs, good shout.

Riding near Carcassonne, another good shout. The Orb valley a little to the east has some great riding, on practically deserted mountain roads – lovely place. A few fabulous descents down from the Cevennes through the vineyards toward the Med coast.

And solar eclipses, I remember the 1999 one – that was definitely wow.

Keep them coming!

gonna be wow at a certain persons ‘death’– parties……

Eating Kobe beef in Kobe
Seeing the current MrsC for the first time
Flying over the Pacific for the 1st (HKG to SAN) and seeing all the atolls and reefs

Basically, the whole Matt Hoffman documentary that was on ESPN Classic over Christmas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgQUap17diY

Hoffman is just .. wow (on a BMX!)

ayers rock did (despite my comment on the non wow thread) but only once we’d escaped the crowds

Flying to the US West Coast, covering hours and hours of bare rock and ice, then tundra, then patchwork fields with a house here and there.. imagining what it would be like to live that far into the middle of nowhere, sitting on your porch watching an aeroplane fly over.

Oh yeah almost forgot – Greenland, ice sheet, archipelago and all, from a plane. Holee cow that was incredible. And the giant vortex of icebergs after it was amazing too.

Driving down the I101 towards San Francisco, seeing the Bay Bridge through the hills and being dissapointed, thinking it was the Golden Gate, then rounding a corner at Sausalito and being confronted with the real Golden Gate bridge right in front, and the compacted elegence of San Fran on the hills beyond. Took the breath away and left me floundering and trying to find the right lane as the guys were pointing out all the landmarks we had only ever seen in films.

Watching the Celtic v Boavista UEFA Cup semi final with a group of mates in my house, Celtic scored and got through to the final, and I stood up and announced I had 6 tickets for the final (bought before the quarter final on spec) There was mayhem!

The week after the Final, (Celtic lost :() Travelled to Durness in the north of Scotland to see an Annular Solar Eclipse ( the sun rose, not quite covered by the moon, a burning ring of fire) The clouds parted at 5.40am and we got a perfect view. The previous day was driving along the coast and had to pull over to let a large Range Rover pass, the driver and passenger both waved their thanks – Brian May driving and Patrick Moore in the passenger seat.

Flying into a small village in the middle of the Amazon Rain Forest, looking out of the window of the plane to see nothing but canopy. Makes you feel very, very small.

Swimming with turtles in the Caribbean
Wakeboarding over a reef in Mauritius and seeing turtles in the water below my toe edge
Fresh corduroy on the Alphand, first run of the day
The dancing fountains in Vegas. Sadly, they were really impressive!
Red Square
The rooftop at the Marina Bay Sands
Seat 62A
Shanghai – Insane, insane place, but WOW!

I had 4 proper WOW moments on a road-trip from a few years ago:

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Grand Canyon[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Arizona Meteor Crater[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Yosemite Silhouette[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

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Giant Grizzly Sequoia[/url] by jwrfooo[/url], on Flickr

J

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Seat 62A

Was she good? 😛

That’s not Matt Hoffman, it’s Joe Calzaghe 😯

Birth of both my sons 🙂

Myvatyn in Iceland – just the bizz. Then being on a mountain bike over the volcanoes…..

The walk to that cafe above glacial lakes but under the glaciers near Jasper – ice cold air off the glaciers, best honey sarnie ever!

Mt St Helen’s.

Being in Yugoslavia as it broke up. Scary.

Finding out that Astoria in Oregon is well worth the journey.

Falling onto an ice covered road yesterday and landing on one knee.Pedalling 15 miles home with ‘odd’ feeling. Mrs Wife’s horrified face on seeing odd lumps ‘you’ve ridden home?’ Not a good ‘wow.’

Good ‘Wow’ spending a month going round the world seeing long lost chums and family in US/NZ/Statss including dolphin swimming, light aircraft over volcanoes etc. Fabulous sense of well being and general ‘my family is ace’ type wow. Recommended.

Boo the Grizzly Bear at Kickinghorse Mountain Resort in Canada:

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025-Boo 7[/url] by Mark and Kirsty Beaman[/url], on Flickr