River Earn, Abernethy, Scotland

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The River Earn runs through Perthshire region of Scotland, an area inhabited by celtic people of the early iron age called Picts.  The Earn is about 46 miles (74 km) long and is fast flowing, with many shoals, and is not navigable, even by small vessels. The surrounding land is generally flat and is occasionally subject to flooding. The river is popular with anglers.

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Ern and Shirley visited the river Earn and the town center. Shirley was from Stockton-on-Tees.

Abernethy Round Tower stands in the ancient village of Abernethy and built from yellowish sandstone blocks.  The bottom dozen rows are of a grayer stone, a seemingly created earlier then the top part.  the purpose of circular freestanding towers is somewhat of a debate. They started appearing around 900s in ireland and by 1100 Celtic Culdee monks established a Monastery in Abernethy. It is thought that the tower was for ring bells to heard across the land. Others speculate that the towers are pre-Christian religious burial chambers for Pictish royal.

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Orange River, Namibia

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Spreetshoogt pass

Orange River is the longest river in South Africa that runs through Namibia to the Atlantic Ocean.  Learn more about the Orange River here.

Bryce Walsh continued his biking trip from Egypt and south to Zambia, and then east to Nambia, on a tour run by Tour d’Afrique. He rode the tour to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, a non-profit provide bikes to rural communities in Africa. Bryce camped at the Feliz Unite Camp along side the Orange River and dipped cloth at that point. Also pictured is Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world.

Zambezi River, Livingstone, Zambia

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460224_3875528450129_1162606054_o Zambezi River is the fourth-longest river in Africa  (2,574-kilometre-long river or 1,599 miles) with the source originating in Zambia. The river flows through Angola, along the boarders of Namibia and Botswana, and then between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It is the largest amount of African river water to flow into the Indian Ocean.

Bryce Walsh is an avid bicyclist that travels far to capture routes to grow his passion and test his drive. Bryce departed from Egypt, on bike, and headed south to Zambia on a tour run by Tour d’Afrique. He rode the tour to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, a non-profit provide bikes to rural communities in Africa. His adventures included dipping white fabric in the Zambezi River.

Zambezi River is divided into three portions; the upper Zambezi, the middle Zambezi, and the lower Zambezi.There are three falls: Victoria Falls, Chavuma Falls, Ngonye Falls, and two dams; Kariba Dam that provides power to Zambia and Angola and the Cahora Bassa Dam that provides power to Mozambique and South Africa. Learn more about the history and ecology of Zambezi River.

The Bosphorus, Istanbul, Turkey

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Jeremie Babinet dipped a t-shirt in The Bosphorus one evening in Istanbul. The Bosphorus is an interesting mix of water, fresh and salt (brackish), with a rich history due to the geographical location and important passage.

The Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles strait to the southwest together form the Turkish Straits. The world’s narrowest strait used for international navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea.)

Although it has been known for a while that the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara flow into each other in an example of a density flow, findings of a study by the University of Leeds in August 2010 reveal that there is in fact an underwater channel of high-density water flowing across the floor of the Bosphorus (caused by the difference in density of the two seas), which would be the sixth largest river on Earth if it were to be on land.

The exact cause for the formation of the Bosphorus remains the subject of debate among geologists. Thousands of years ago, the Black Sea became disconnected from the Aegean Sea. The Black Sea deluge theory (published in 1997 by William Ryan and Walter Pitman from Columbia University) contends that the Bosphorus was formed about 5600 BC when the rising waters of the Mediterranean/Sea of Marmara breached through to the Black Sea, which at the time (according to the theory) was a low-lying body of fresh water.

Learn more on Wikipedia