World Cliffs Discussion: January 2025 Contest

So, to start the year off right (Happy New Year!), This is where we can discuss January’s theme. With 20,000 km of French coastline (there’s a catch ;)), our beautiful country should be well represented!

Dig out those hard drives! Bruno

Are mountain cliffs allowed?

The ocean foams with rage at its inability to topple the cliff. S. Tesson (Aphorisms Under the Moon)

A great topic for anyone who’s traveled to the Faroe Islands...

Are mountain cliffs allowed?

The ocean foams with rage at its inability to topple the cliff. S. Tesson (Aphorisms Under the Moon)

When the mountain meets the sea… That’s gotta exist! 😛

A great topic for anyone who’s traveled to the Faroe Islands...

You’ve piqued my curiosity—I can’t wait to find out more!

Hey! Be careful not to fall into the sea from the top of the cliff 🤪

I guess we’ll get to see the landscapes of the Great Ocean Road! 😉

Are mountain cliffs allowed?

The ocean foams with rage at its inability to topple the cliff. S. Tesson (Aphorisms Under the Moon)

When the mountain meets the sea 🤔 It must exist! 😛

But mountains without cliffs are off-topic!

Walvis Bay, Namibia

I guess we’ll get to see the landscapes of the Great Ocean Road! 😉

To be honest, that’s obviously what inspired the topic—but not just that!

So we're waiting for your photos! 😛 I went to check out what the "Great Ocean Road" is like—it's gorgeous! 😎

Hi there

I’ll have to check, but I don’t think I have many camera photos on this topic. For smartphone photos, Conero in the Marche region:



Where the stormy union between the Mediterranean and the continent creates a vibrant mix:



Cat

While waiting for the Faroe Islands, here’s Iceland!





And where there are cliffs, there’s...

Alentejo

Indeed, Agnès, those little puffins aren’t afraid to throw themselves off the cliff into the sea to go fishing 😉

So we're waiting for your photos 😛 I checked out what the "Great Ocean Road" is like—it's gorgeous 😎

6:52 AM on the balcony of the 19th floor of the aparthotel in Adelaide where we’re dropping our bags for a 3-day break. The sun’s rising, unfortunately on the other side of the tower . Adelaide is a horizontal city of 30,000 souls, but a few towers in the CBD (central business district) punctuate the still-sleepy city.



No, this isn’t the start of a travel journal—just the scenery around me. Photos will come, and yes, the Great Ocean Road lived up to its reputation 😉—but not right away… And for the birds, we’ll keep it simple.

Port Fairy

Though here, you can easily spot these kinds of birds during your coastal walks.

Phillip Island, south of Melbourne

No way, this one’s the best, Bruno!! I saw tons of cliffs today, but I had no idea it was gonna be the contest of the month—otherwise, I would’ve put in way more effort 😅. Have an amazing trip on the other side of the globe, and see you soon! 😊

Oh come on, Bruno, this one takes the cake! I saw tons of cliffs today, but I had no idea it was the contest of the month—otherwise, I would’ve put in way more effort 😄. Have an amazing trip on the other side of the globe, and see you soon 😊

Thanks, Christelle!

The girl who’s gonna party hard on the 31st in Ibiza clubs and wants us to believe she went for the scenery 😎😉😜

Are these the cliffs of Adelaide? 😛

Are these the cliffs of Adelaide? 😛

Nope, just feeling like gaining some altitude 😉

In Iceland, when the rainbow follows the cliff down into the sea 🙂

The 2023-2024 "harvest"

Dingli Cliffs (Malta, April 2023)



Cabo São Vicente (Algarve, Portugal, February 2024)



Costa Vicentina (Portugal)

Ponta de Piedade (Algarve, Portugal)



Cabo Sardão (Alentejo, Portugal)



Calanques de Piana (Corsica, April 2024) Bonifacio

What a great haul! Don’t forget the contest, though 😉

A few photos of Ha Long Bay that could’ve entered the contest ;)

Thanks Christelle! The girl who’s gonna party hard on the 31st in Ibiza clubs and wants us to believe she went there for the scenery 😎😉😉

Okay, this really isn’t the topic, but it’s for the joke—I’ll tell you about my *genius* New Year’s Eve in Ibiza, Bruno 😂. Seriously, nothing to be jealous about 😆. It starts with my husband getting sick and bowing out, but he gives me the "midnight pass." Well, yeah—there’s a concert planned in town, and I *have* to go because, you know, Ibiza 🙄. So I head out on a "bike-share," 4 km away, and when I get to the tent where the concert’s supposed to be—crickets 🙈. A friendly Senegalese guy selling flashing headbands fills me in: it’s canceled, rain’s coming 🌧️. Sure enough, at quarter to midnight, the rain *arrives*!! There are dozens of us wandering the streets with no idea what to do. We all end up taking shelter under a carousel for the midnight countdown: whooo, it’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s the frog party 🐸🍾😂. So I bike back in the rain to find my sweetheart, looking about as sexy as a *completely* un-wrung-out mop. But we’re saved—we finish the night with a David Guetta concert… on TV 😆. Have a great day, everyone! 😊

Oh yeah, Christelle, that’s definitely not what we expected from a New Year’s Eve in Ibiza 😂😂😂

😎 I love New Year’s Eve!! Still, you can go home saying you "saw" David Guetta on the 31st in Ibiza!! #classy

For my New Year’s Eve, I’ve also got a great story, but you’ll have to wait for the travel journal 😉

Photo 1: Monemvasia, Laconia, Greece.



Except here, I don’t have the sea, so it’s off-topic. Sorry Catherine, I want water!

And so I reread my messages—mea culpa—because even though I mentioned it (the battle of the sea against the land), it’s not in this post. So, to clarify: Cliffs of the World and the sea Sorry Catherine, so you can add a second N1... Good thing Michel85200 isn’t participating, or I’d have gotten Table Mountain

You can see the sea in the background. (The town is by the seaside.)

So, is water absolutely required, even if it’s clearly a cliff?

Hi there,

I confirm, the town below the cliff is right at sea level:



But I get that this isn’t quite what Bruno’s looking for.

Haven’t come across any photogenic cliffs lately, and I’ve got nothing on the topic in my back pocket!

Catherine

Good evening,

Just a quick clarification:

A cliff is a linear coastal escarpment shaped by marine erosion at the expense of the relief. There’s therefore a direct contact between the terrestrial relief and the marine environment. Bruno is very clear on this: "When the sea battles the land", even if he specifies that "the battle of the elements is optional".

In mainland France, the most beautiful cliffs—see the Impressionists—are in the Pays de Caux in Normandy (Étretat). The word itself even comes from the Norman-Germanic language.

In Monemvasia, it’s a "dead cliff," likely resulting from continental uplift. It’s no longer in contact with the sea, and the village was built on the former marine abrasion platform. This is also the case for that farm in the Lofoten Islands (careful not to go off-topic about this archipelago).



From a geomorphological standpoint, the rocky pinnacles in Halong Bay aren’t cliffs in the strict sense. They’re tropical karsts (called "tower karsts") shaped by chemical dissolution in limestone. The sea played no role in their formation, except for the notch at the base of the pinnacles.

That was your cultural minute! 😉

So is water absolutely required even if it's a cliff?

He should tell us how much water is needed ;)

Well, there's water here, but the cliff is only suggested 😛



(Sorry, Bruno !😉 )

He should tell us how much water he wants

It’s not rocket science! 😛

Okay, I’m out.

From a geomorphological point of view, the rocky pinnacles of Ha Long Bay aren't cliffs in the strict sense. They're tropical karsts (called "tower karsts") shaped by chemical dissolution in limestone. The sea played no part in their formation, except for the notch at the base of the pinnacles.

That was the "cultural" minute 😉

Thanks, Michel, for that little clarification—it's true I didn't look up the definition of "cliff" 🙁 Bruno, let me know if I should remove my Ha Long Bay photo... you're the boss 😉

Bruno let me know if I should remove my Ha Long Bay photo

The photo is really beautiful, though, and he did add that "the qualities of the photograph (lighting, colors, angles) will make the difference," which is key in a photo contest.

Have a good evening.

So, is water absolutely necessary even if it's a cliff?

He should tell us how much water is wanted

Sorry for the delayed reply, but there’s an unavoidable lag time, plus I gotta get some sleep 😉

So yeah, water’s a must—otherwise, I’ll just pull out my collection of cliffs from Haute-Savoie (even if, at some point during the glacial era, there *was* water) As for the amount, I’ll leave that up to you guys—everyone here knows I’m no water expert …

Okay, there's water here but the cliff is only suggested 😛



(Sorry Bruno !😉 )

No worries, but this isn’t exactly making me dream about the Faroe Islands…

From a geomorphological point of view, the rocky pinnacles of Ha Long Bay aren't cliffs in the strict sense. They're tropical karsts (called "tower karsts") shaped by chemical dissolution in limestone. The sea played no part in their formation, except for the notch at the base of the pinnacles.

That was the "cultural" minute 😉

Thanks, Michel, for that little clarification—it's true, I didn't look up the definition of "cliff" 🙁 Bruno, let me know if I should remove my Ha Long Bay photo... you're the boss 😉

For once I'm the boss of something, I won't hold back !🤪

I wondered about Ha Long Bay myself, but I also remembered there were more imposing pinnacles that, in my opinion, did form cliffs. We'll set aside Michel's brilliant scientific explanation of Ha Long's genesis. So, I'll gladly leave it up, especially since the photo is really beautiful.

He’d need to tell us how much water he wants

It’s not rocket science! 😛

Okay, I’m out.

That one’s a bit much! 😏

You're wrong. It's an amazing photo for the Faroe Islands!

The weather's nice...😏

Thanks Bruno, so I’ll leave the limestone karsts of Ha Long Bay 😊

In Hawaii, water flooded the caldera and eroded the volcanic rock, forming the Hanauma Bay surrounded by beautiful cliffs.

In Hawaii, water flooded the caldera and eroded the volcanic rock, forming the Hanauma Bay surrounded by beautiful cliffs.



Hey Isabelle! Early bird today! But seriously, your photos—come on! Are you grabbing them off the internet or what? They look like a travel agency catalog!!! So jealous.

I’m pulling out my collection of cliffs from my Haute-Savoie (even if at some point during the glacial era there was water

but not in liquid water form.. 😎 Otherwise, there can be lake cliffs as long as the waves are strong enough to erode the rock. There are said to be some stunning ones at Lake Baikal, but I’m no Sylvain Tesson—I haven’t gone to see them.

I’m pulling out my cliff collection from my Haute-Savoie (even if at some point during the glacial era there was water

but not in the form of liquid water.. 😎 Otherwise, there can be lake cliffs as long as the waves are strong enough to erode the rock. There are supposedly some stunning ones at Lake Baikal, but I’m not Sylvain Tesson, so I haven’t gone to see them.

Well, if the glaciers disappeared, they didn’t just evaporate, did they? Go check out the Mer de Glace—you’ll see the damage, and it’s not from the glacial era…

PS: I loved that book (*In the Forests of Siberia* for those who don’t know the reference)

In Hawaii, water flooded the caldera and eroded the volcanic rock, forming the Hanauma Bay surrounded by beautiful cliffs.



Hello Isabelle! Early bird today! But seriously, your photos—you gotta be kidding me for a sec: Are you swiping them from the internet or what? They look like a travel agency catalog!!! I’m jealous.

Oh Bruno, I’ve been busted 😅 The big issue is finding vacation catalog photos that we *could’ve* taken ourselves 😂😂😂

That’s definitely not gonna happen to me given the quality of my shots (despite your love last month), but that’s the risk with photos posted here—you release them from their copyright ©️, right? Honestly, I’ve no idea…

That’s not gonna happen to me given the quality of my shots (despite your vote of confidence last month), but that’s the risk with photos posted here—you release them from their copyright ©️, right? Honestly, I’ve no idea…

No, Bruno, that’s not what I meant. It’s me who swipes photos from holiday brochures to show you guys 😆 But yeah, when you post photos on social media, there’s a risk of seeing them pop up in ads. It’s a big issue for professional photographers who have to “sacrifice” some shots by putting them online 😢 Personally, since I’m just an amateur and take photos for fun, it doesn’t affect me 😊

Go take a trip to the Mer de Glace

I’ve done more than one tour on the Mer de Glace, and for a long time now, which has allowed me to witness the glacier’s catastrophic evolution.

The last glacial hike (or so-called glacial hike) was about ten years ago. The Mer de Glace was nothing more than a shadow of itself, its surface reduced to a very dense network of meltwater streams. There was even a kind of glacial canyon about a hundred meters deep, at the bottom of which the subglacial torrent appeared in the open air. The Mer de Glace had literally been gutted in its center. Never seen anything like it! The relentless melting of glaciers is chilling!

Like the accelerating retreat of cliffs, to get back to the subject.

The big problem is finding vacation catalog photos that match what we could have taken

That’s why, in my opinion at least, it’s important to share photos you won’t see everywhere (like Étretat, Ponta da Piedade, or Bonifacio), unless you add an original touch—think a blanket of fog, unique lighting, massive waves, or something like that. And that’s way trickier, which I don’t have.

Hence the need, in my opinion at least, to submit photos that aren't found everywhere (Étretat, Ponta da Piedade, Bonifacio, for example), unless you add an original touch like a blanket of fog, unique lighting, gigantic waves, who knows? And that's more complicated, and I don't have it.

Love your message, you just made me delete 98% of my Great Ocean Road photos because here everything is so well-trodden that EVERYONE has the same shots But I do appreciate even classic photos of places I don’t know, just for the discovery. For example, I didn’t know there were signs in the Faroe Islands… Now *that* shot, not everyone has it!!