Ailsa’s Travel Theme: Red

Ailsa’s travel theme this week is “Red’ and she has some amazing images of red landscapes in her latest post.

I also have a few photos to show you, which depict the colour red. The first is my favourite, and I used it for my ‘Capture the Colour’ entry, which I didn’t win of course. 🙂 It’s of a baby polar bear at SeaWorld in San Diego, fast asleep, cuddled up to his red plastic comfort toy.

Next up are these modern-day Gladiators posing outside the Colosseum in Rome, looking very dashing in their red costumes.

Red seemed to be the dominant colour at this market stall in the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu. The lady minding the stall, was however, oblivious of anything around her at the time when the photo was taken.

This no entry sign in the courtyard opposite our hotel in Florence really amused me. The black silhouette, sneakily carrying away the no-entry bar, is just one of several such signs, created by French artist Clet Abraham, who has lived in Italy for 20 years.

Here is Luanne, who cooked for us last year when we stayed at a villa in Round Hill, Jamaica. The lobsters were fresh that morning out of Montego Bay. When I asked her for a photo, she quickly went and put on her chef’s hat for the occasion.

They were even redder, and utterly scrumptious, when they were served up for dinner that evening.

Talking of food, I do love to use red place mats when we have friends around to share a meal with us. It always makes the table look more festive, don’t you think.

What would a ‘Red’ post be without a wonderful sunset? This shot was taken from the jetty outside our hotel on San Clemente Island in Venice.

Last but by no means least, is our distinctive 21 metre high Umhlanga Rocks lighthouse which dominates the lovely beach here. It was completed in 1954, and its beam emits a light equivalent to six hundred thousand candles flashing three times every twenty seconds. It can be seen from as far as twenty-four miles away at sea during visible conditions. The circular tower, with its bright red top, serves as a ‘guiding light’,  which leads vessels through some of South Africa’s most treacherous coastline and warns them of hidden dangers.  It is fully automated, and has never had its own lighthouse keeper, the lights being operated from the nearby Oyster Box Hotel, which has been its official warden for almost sixty years.

I hope you enjoyed my red photos. To see more red entries to Ailsa’s theme, just click here.