Welcome to Orania, South Africa's only "purely" white town

Orania is a South Africa's only "purely" white town founded in the Northern Cape province in 1991 by Afrikaners, for Afrikaners opposed to the post-apartheid "rainbow nation," just after the release of Nelson Mandela. One thousand people live in Orania, and they try to be as self-sufficient as possible. They have their own money, as well as their own flag. Orania's population grows at nine per cent a year. It attracts Afrikaners who feel to be left out in the new South Africa, and who are scared of the country's high crime rates. The little town is protected by article 235 of South Africa's constitution, which guarantees the right of self-determination. But residents here are thinking big — their next goal is the creation of an Afrikaner Republic.

Photos taken by Stephane de Sakutin of AFP/Getty Images on April 17, 2013.

 

A young boy plays by a painted wall reading "Welcome in Orania" in Afrikaans.

 

Afrikaner pupils attend a lesson with their teacher.

 

A cashier holds Orania's currency notes.

More photos after the jump.

Highlights from the 2013 National Geographic Traveler photo contest

The winners have been announced for the 25th annual National Geographic Traveler photo contest — featuring some stunning pictures of people, places and things from around the globe. They're still taking submissions, for all you globe-trotting photographers. Here is a selection of our favourites that have already been entered:

 

 

A fisherman casts his net on Bira Beach in Indonesia. Dody Kusuma photo

 

Mikael Ande, a child of Sami reindeer herders, takes a break indoors after a long, cold day of rounding up the animals for vaccinations and slaughter. Children of reindeer herders learn to handle these animals and the land they thrive in from infancy — young Mikael here knew far more about the ways of nature than I could ever hope to learn. Michelle Schantz photo

 

 

I found this girl in a monastery in Jakar, posing at the door of the main entrance to the chapel. Juan Abal Lopez photo

 

A scientist climbs out of an ice cave formed by volcanic vents near the summit of Mt. Erebus, Antarctica. Alasdair Turner photo

 

More photos after the jump:

Art-like patterns in sandstone at the ruins in Petra, Jordan

Adam Pretty of Getty Images captured these intricate, art-like detailed views the sandstone inside the ruins at Petra in Jordan. Photographed on March 29, 2013.

 

 

—@canice

All aboard: train trip through reborn Nigeria tells nation's history

Nigeria reopened its train line to the north in December of 2012, marking the end of a $166 million project to rebuild portions of the abandoned line that had been washed out years earlier. The state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. rebuilt the southern portion of the line, while a Nigerian company handled the rest.

The rebirth of the line that goes north, called the Ooni of Ife, constitutes a major economic relief to the poor seeking to travel in a country where most earn less than $1 a day. Airline tickets remain out of the reach of many and journeys over the nation's crumbling road network can be dangerous. The cheapest train ticket available costs only $13.

The Ooni of Ife is a gruelling trip that travels 835 kilometres from Lagos, Nigeria's massive southwestern city, on the long trip north to Kano. The route offers a glimpse of the nation's history and landscapes, while also allowing travelers to see its ethnic and religious diversity firsthand. While Nigeria is predominantly divided into a Christian south and a Muslim north, the two faiths live together largely peacefully and intermarry in sprawling Lagos. All of Nigeria's more than 250 ethnic groups can be found on the city's busy streets, hustling out a living otherwise not possible in their home regions.

Photos taken in March 2013 by Sunday Alamba of The Associated Press.

 

Passengers lineup to purchase train tickets to Kano, in a terminal in Lagos, Nigeria.

 

A passenger peers through the ticket window in Lagos.

 

A man displays train tickets to Kano.

Sailing down the river in the Siberian Taiga

Amateur shipbuilder Alexander Marchenko has constructed a traditional 17th century-style wooden sailing ship, moored to a bank of the Yenisei River in the Siberian Taiga area in Khakassia region some 520 km south of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Marchenko, who has no experience in building or operating sail boats, has spent his free time on the ship for the last two years, working to achieve his childhood dreams of building a boat. He plans to use the vessel as a Yenisei River tourist attraction, moored between the Sayano-Shushenskaya and the Maynskaya hydroelectric power stations. Marchenko was photographed on March 24, 2013, by Reuters photographer Ilya Naymushin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

—@canice

Editor's Choice - Pictures of the Day - The Cold Pole - February 18, 2013

Follow photo editor Wanda Goodwin on Twitter

 

The coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded in the Oymyakon valley, Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia, where according to the United Kingdom Met Office, a temperature of -67.8 degrees Celsius (-90 degrees Fahrenheit) was registered in 1933 - the coldest on record in the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century. Yet despite the harsh climate, people live in the valley, and the area is equipped with schools, a post office, a bank, and even an airport runway (albeit open only in the summer).

 

Here's a glimpse into the lives of the people who inhabit this harsh region of Russia.

 

 

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov 

A minibus drives along an ice road across the Lena river, outside Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A girl bundled up for the cold in the village of Oymyakon, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A man passes a sign saying "Oymyakon 'Pole of Cold'" on the site of a former meteorological station in the village of Oymyakon, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Lumberjacks Alexey Egorov, 45, (L) and Semion VInokurov, 53, lunch in the cabin of their truck in forest outside Tomtor in the Oymyakon valley, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A general view of the village of Tomtor in the Oymyakon valley, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Ships are moored on the banks of a river for the winter outside Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A view shows ice sculptures on the Lena river, constructed for the celebration of Orthodox Epiphany outside Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Alexander Gubin, 43, prepares to dive into the frozen Labynkyr lake, some 100 km south from Oymyakon in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Ruslan, 35, loads blocks of ice onto a truck outside Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Traffic lights are seen covered in snow in Yakutsk, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A woman wrapped in fur walks in the village of Tomtor in the Oymyakon valley, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A car drives through the snow at night near Vostochnaya meteorological station, some 500 km northeast of Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Trees are covered with hoarfrost, with the air temperature at about minus 46 degrees Celsius (minus 50.8 degrees Fahrenheit), in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.

 

 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A woman passes a board on a building, displaying the local time, temperature, humidity and air pressure in Yakutsk, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A dog lies on wood shavings in the village of Tomtor in the Oymyakon valley in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A view of the snowy landscape near Vostochnaya meteorological station, in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

 

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A man takes a drink in the cabin of his truck in the village of Ytyk-Kyuyol in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia.

Editor's Choice - Picture of the Day - May 18, 2012

This seems like a fitting shot to kick off a long weekend — bumper-to-bumper Toronto traffic on the 404 headed northbound to cottage country:

Highway 404 traffic is seen going northbound (towards the camera) out of the GTA at Steeles Avenue on the afternoon of Friday, May 18, 2012 — the exodus of Torontonians heading out of the city for the Victoria Day long weekend. (DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR)

Editor's Choice Picture of the Day - April 4, 2012

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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

A ski patroller makes first tracks as he plows though the snow during a powder day off of the Peak Chair on Whistler mountain in Whistler, B.C.,  April 4, 2012. The ski resort has seen 74 cm of fresh snow in the past 48 hours and has had a total cumulative snowfall of 1343 cm to date for the season.

Editor's Choice Pictures of the Day - Smithsonian Photo Contest Finalists - March 6, 2012

This is a selection of Smithsonian magazine’s 9th annual photo contest finalists. The contest has attracted over 14 thousand photographers from   over 100 countries. The five categories include —The Natural World, Americana, People, Travel and Altered Images (for photographs that have been manipulated).

Smithsonian photo editors have selected 50 finalists, 10 in each category, which will be displayed on the Smithsonian website. Ultimately, the editors will select one winner in each category, as well as one grand prize winner. Readers are invited to select an additional winner by voting for Readers Choice  for their favorite image on the site The voting period will be open from March 1-31, 2012.  All photos © Smithsonian.com

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Village boys relaxing

Nimai Chandra Ghosh (Kolkata, India)
Photographed November 2009, West Bengal, India

Blue Ice Cave

Jamie Scarrow (Bruce, Canberra, Australia)
Photographed December 2011, Antarctica

Segways on tour in Valencia near a modern building

Marcel van Balken (Amstelveen, Netherlands)
Photographed October 2010, Valencia, Spain

 

The golden rock

David Lazar (Brisbane, Australia)
Photographed February 2010, Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar

The Kara women are the backbone of the tribe

Nicholas Wiesnet (Garden Grove, California)
Photographed September 2011, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia

Moonrise over Northern Lights

Ben Hattenbach (Los Angeles, California)
Photographed March 2011, northern Alaska



Everything will be all right

Brian Day (Oak Park, Michigan)
Photographed April 2011, Detroit, Michigan

Behind the blue

Paolo Patruno (Bologna, Italy)
Photographed May 2011, Lilongwe, Malawi

Wanting to see her big brother during his baseball game

Stephanie Fox (Mobile, Alabama)
Photographed March 2011, Mobile, Alabama

Neighborly dispute

Donald Montemorra (Swampscott, Massachusetts)
Photographed July 2009, Katmai National Park, Alaska

Ranch dog taking a break from work

Jamie Illian (Dallas, Texas)
Photographed April 2011, Ellsworth, Nebraska

 

A homeless boy sleeping inside the train

Budi Prakasa (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Photographed August 2009, Jakarta, Indonesia

King Penguins

Jamie Scarrow (Bruce, Canberra, Australia)
Photographed November 2010, South Georgia

Three fishermen on Inle Lake

David Lazar (Brisbane, Australia)
Photographed January 2011, Inle Lake, Myanmar

 

The diversity of ordinary life

Branko Stojanovic (Novi Sad, Serbia)
Photographed November 2011, Novi Sad, Serbia

 

 

Editor's Choice - Picture of the Day - January 14, 2012

View of the Costa Concordia taken on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio, last night. Three people died and about 70 were missing Saturday after an Italian cruise ship with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground and keeled over, sparking scenes of panic. The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it apparently hit a reef near the island of Giglio on Friday, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner. (AFP/Getty Images/Filippo Monteforte)