Otherworld
Bolivia · January to March for the mirror
Salar de Uyuni
The largest salt flat on earth, a mirror in the wet season and a white desert in the dry
Salar de Uyuni · Zhangjiajie · Tsingy de Bemaraha
Otherworld
A salt flat that becomes the sky, a forest of sandstone pillars in the mist, and a plateau of limestone needles crossed on cables. The otherworld realm is geology behaving as if it had read too much science fiction.
These three places have nothing in common except the reaction they produce, which is disbelief. Salt at 3,660 metres that turns into a mirror. Three thousand sandstone columns with trees on top. A plateau dissolved into needles with lemurs living on the points. The Place Comparator is the tool for this realm, because the question people ask is which one, and the honest answer depends on altitude, roads and money.
One is high and cold, one is low and crowded, one is hot and a day from anywhere. The model on each page says which of those you can live with.
Everything in Otherworld
Otherworld
Bolivia · January to March for the mirror
Salar de Uyuni
The largest salt flat on earth, a mirror in the wet season and a white desert in the dry
Otherworld
China · April to May and September to November
Zhangjiajie
Three thousand sandstone pillars in mist, and the world’s longest glass bridge across a canyon
Otherworld
Madagascar · June to October
Tsingy de Bemaraha
A forest of limestone needles crossed on cables and ladders, with lemurs living on the blades
Climate by month
Salar de Uyuni
Zhangjiajie
Tsingy de Bemaraha
The strangest ground you have stood on
Questions people ask
Which otherworld first?
Zhangjiajie: the lowest, cheapest and easiest, with an airport an hour away. Uyuni needs altitude, the Tsingy needs the road.
Is the salt mirror guaranteed?
No. It needs rain that season, from January to March, and even then it floods some routes. The dry crust from May to October is the other beauty.
How hard is the Tsingy via ferrata?
Secured with cables and harnesses; a head for heights and steady feet. The drive to get there is harder than the rock.
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.