James' World 2

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The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some 4,880 kilometers (3,030 mi). It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. It merges with the Paraguay River and then farther downstream with the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

The first European to go up the Paraná River was the Venetian explorer Sebastian Cabot, in 1526, while working for Spain.

In 2021 a drought has hit the river causing a 77-year low.

In eastern South America there is “an immense number of river names containing the element para- or parana-“, from Guarani language words meaning “river” or “sea”; attempts to derive a more precise meaning for the name of this, the largest of them, e.g. “kin of the sea”, have been discounted.

The course is formed at the confluence of the Paranaiba and Rio Grande rivers in southern Brazil. From the confluence, the river flows in a generally southwestern direction for about 619 km (385 mi) before encountering the city of Saltos del Guaira, Paraguay. This was once the location of the Guaíra Falls (Sete Quedas waterfalls, where the Paraná fell over a series of seven cascades. This natural feature was said to rival the world-famous Iguazu Falls to the south. The falls were flooded, however, by the construction of the Itaipu Dam, which began operating in 1984.

For approximately the next 200 km (120 mi) the Paraná flows southward and forms a natural boundary between Paraguay and Brazil until the confluence with the Iguazu River. Shortly upstream from this confluence, however, the river is dammed by the Itaipu Dam, the second-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world (following the Three Gorges Dam in the People’s Republic of China), and creating a massive, shallow reservoir behind it. Wikipedia

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An image of the Parana River

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Fernando de Noronha (Brazilian Portuguese: [feʁˈnɐ̃du d(ʒ)i noˈɾoɲɐ]) is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and located 354 km (220 mi) offshore from the Brazilian coast. It consists of 21 islands and islets, extending over an area of 26 km² (10 sq mi). Only the eponymous main island is inhabited; it has an area of 18.4 km² (7.1 sq mi) and a population estimated at 3,101 in 2020.

The islands are administratively unique in Brazil. They form a “state district” (Portuguese: distrito estadual) that is administered directly by the government of the state of Pernambuco (despite being closer to the state of Rio Grande do Norte). The state district’s jurisdiction also includes the very remote Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, located 625 km (388 mi) northeast of Fernando de Noronha. 70% of the islands’ area was established in 1988 as a national marine park.

In 2001, UNESCO designated it as a World Heritage Site because of its importance as a feeding ground for tuna, sharks, turtles, and marine mammals.  Its time zone is UTC−02:00 all year round.

Fernando de Noronha’s occupation dates to the early 16th century. Due to its geographical position, the archipelago was one of the first lands sighted in the New World, being shown in a nautical chart in 1500 by the Spanish cartographer Juan de La Cosa, and in 1502 by the Portuguese Alberto Cantino, in the latter with the name “Quaresma”.

Based on the written record, Fernando de Noronha island was discovered on August 10, 1503, by a Portuguese expedition, organized and financed by a private commercial consortium headed by the Lisbon merchant Fernão de Loronha. The expedition was under the overall command of captain Gonçalo Coelho and carried the Italian adventurer Amerigo Vespucci aboard, who wrote an account of it. The flagship of the expedition hit a reef and foundered near the island, and the crew and contents had to be salvaged. On Coelho’s orders, Vespucci anchored at the island, and spent a week there, while the rest of the Coelho fleet went on south. In his letter to Soderini, Vespucci describes the uninhabited island and reports its name as the “island of St. Lawrence” (August 10 is the feast day of St. Lawrence; it was a custom of Portuguese explorations to name locations by the liturgical calendar). Wikipedia

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An image from Fernando de Noronha

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Cape Le Grand National Park is a national park in Western Australia, 631 km (392 mi) south-east of Perth and 56 km (35 mi) east of Esperance. The park covers an area of 31,801 hectares (78,580 acres) The area is an ancient landscape which has been above sea level for well over 200 million years and remained unglaciated. As a result, the area is home to many primitive relict species. Established in 1966, the park is managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife. The name Le Grand is from one of the officers on L’Espérance, one of the ships in the 1792 expedition of Bruni d’Entrecasteaux.

The largely granite shoreline and white sand beaches are picturesque features of the area. The park is used for fishing, off-roading, tourism, and hiking. Beaches within the Park include those at Lucky Bay, Rossiter Bay, Hellfire Bay, Le Grand Beach, and Thistle Cove. The islands and waters to the south of the park are known as the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve, another protected area of the Recherche Archipelago and nearby coastal regions. The Cape Arid National Park is located to the east. The southwest section of the Park is dominated by rock outcrops of gneiss and granite. These form a distinctive chain of peaks including Mount Le Grand (345 m), Frenchman Peak (262 m), and Mississippi Hill (180 m, named after the Mississippi, a French whaler). Further inland, the park comprises mostly heath-covered sandplain, interspersed with swamps and pools of fresh water.

The sandplains support dense stands of banksias (Banksia speciosa and Banksia pulchella).

Other flora that can be found around the park include Melaleucas, Grevilleas, sheoaks, Christmas trees, and grass trees. Wildflower blooms peak in the austral spring, lasting until October, and species such as blue china orchid Cyanicula gemmata, Diuris corymbosa, Hakea laurina, Thysanotus sparteus, and Thelymitra macrophylla are represented within the park.

Fauna that are commonly found within the park include bandicoots, pygmy honey possums, ring-tailed possums, quenda, and western grey kangaroos. Some of the relict species with gondwanan links that are found within the park include legless lizards, like the common scaly-foot Pygopus lepidopodus, and Delma fraseri, Delma australis, and Aprasia striolata. The ancient, although non-gondwanan, blind snake Ramphotyphlops australis is also found within the park. Endemic frogs found within the area include the |quacking frog Crinia georgiana, the banjo frog Limnodynastes dorsalis, and the humming frog Neobatrachus pelobatoides. Wikipedia

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An image from Cape Le Grand National Park

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Chobe National Park is Botswana’s first national park, and also the most biologically diverse. Located in the north of the country, it is Botswana’s third-largest park, after Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Gemsbok National Park, and has one of the greatest concentrations of game in all of Africa.

This park is noted for having a population of lions which prey on elephants, mostly calves or juveniles, but also subadults.

The original inhabitants of this area were the San bushmen (also known as the Basarwa people in Botswana). They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who were constantly moving from place to place to find food sources, namely fruits, water, and wild animals. Nowadays one can find San paintings inside rocky hills of the park.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the region that would become Botswana was divided into different land tenure systems. At that time, a major part of the park’s area was classified as crown land. The idea of a national park to protect the varied wildlife found here as well as promote tourism first appeared in 1931. The following year, 24,000 km² (9,300 sq mi) around Chobe district were officially declared non-hunting area; this area was expanded to 31,600 km² (12,200 sq mi) two years later.

In 1943, heavy tsetse infestations occurred throughout the region, delaying the creation of the national park. By 1953, the project received governmental attention again: 21,000 km² (8,100 sq mi) were suggested to become a game reserve. Chobe Game Reserve was officially created in 1960, though smaller than initially desired. In 1967, the reserve was declared a national park.

At that time there were several industrial settlements in the region, especially at Serondela, where the timber industry proliferated. These settlements were gradually moved out of the park, and it was not until 1975 that the whole protected area was exempt from human activity. Nowadays traces of the prior timber industry are still visible at Serondela. Minor expansions of the park took place in 1980 and 1987. Wikipedia

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An image from Chobe National Park

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