![]() The daybird flocks recede ahead of you-you can't keep up, not that it really matters. You rise with it, and fly east over the sea for hours. It's Sunday, of course-the day the sun rises. No philosophers on Midway! Daybirds aren't introverts. Hence Midway! Small, lively-a town for singles, for the young. As its name suggests, it's halfway across the long sea-passage from Tethus to the Surupa Islands, the only stretch of northern sea too wide for daybirds to cross without rest. Let's start in the far northwest, on the floating town of Midway (upper right of the orbital photo-lost in horizon-haze, really). And while you sleep, the sun rises again. It's quite an experience-waking as the sun rises in the west, flying east all day through perpetual dawn, falling behind when you rest but outracing the sun on the wing, so that in your final stretch the sun re-sets. But nearly every flight-capable young person has circumnavigated Venus as a daybird once, just to do it. Of course, few people want to just fly, sleep and fly again forever. On Venus, anyone smaller than a horse who insists on staying wingless is perverse-like being carless in ancient Los Angeles. Even tourists in strap-ons, unused to flight, can lumber around. On Venus, of course, nearly every animal 60 kg and under can fly, or at least glide on skinflaps. It's amazing birds survive on Terra at all. To keep up with the sun, one must fly about 700 km a day, quite feasible for a dedicated flier, who can average 90-100 kph, just like migrating geese on Terra-and geese must struggle along in stronger gravity and thin air, just 30% of Venus's sea-level pressure. Named after the "snowbirds" of North America (migrants who fled its snowy pre-Melt winters), the rainbirds of Ishtar flock to the north coast with sunrise, and fill the coastal towns, then spread their wings at dusk and hop south over the great mountains, where the nights are drier and lighter, leaving the off-season towns to melancholy authors and other indoor sorts.īut the migratory champions are the much rarer daybirds, who circle the Arctic Sea ahead of the night, living in perpetual day, riding the steady winds like surfers on Old Earth. It's led to a peculiar settlement pattern: the rainbirds. And the region's Mediterranean climate typically means a mild, dry cloudless week of low sun, then a week of dark cloudy nights with fog and drizzle. ![]() Ishtar nights get very dark up north, for the bulge of the planet and the mountains to the south hide most of the light from the equatorial rings. Strip away the forests and seas if you like, but these mountains, plateaus, valleys and basins are there now. Oh, and while you're touring, remember-this is real. South Ishtar is much lower, warmer, and wetter, climaxing in Megazoic rainforests on the southeastern shore. Northern Ishtar has a cool, mild, fairly dry climate (think coastal California) central Ishtar is high, cold, and fairly dry-grassland, desert, alpine tundra, or open pine forest. Eastern Ishtar is lower but much larger, and today it has some of the biggest lakes and longest rivers on Venus. ![]() In the west, Lakshmi Plateau resembles Tibet, with some of the highest peaks on Venus and a truly Terran continental feel. Venus Unveiled homepage - new? prepare for shocks - map - peoples - gazetteer - glossary - more worlds? Planetocopia! THE WORLD DREAM BANK: Venus Unveiled: Ishtar ![]()
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