There are many kinds of beetles in the world, but male Darwin’s beetle has some of the biggest jaws of all. The male's over-sized jaws are crucial in its objective to climbs trees searching for a female. This searching can go though many meters, until it finds a mate. In this journey, a male will seek out the other males; this is when they need to fight. It uses its jaws in combat as it hooks them under the opposite beetle's wings, pulls up and throws it to the ground (from 20 meters above, as they are in tall trees most of the time)
The Old North Yungas Road (Road of Death), Bolivia
The North Yungas Road (Death Road) is a 61-kilometre (38 mi) or 69-kilometre (43 mi) road (Length varies, depending on source) leading from Bolivia's main city, La Paz, to a region known as the Yungas. Most of the road no wider than 3.2 meters (10 ft) and lack of guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain, fog and dust can reduce visibility. In many places the road surface is muddy, and can loosen rocks from the road. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named it as the "world's most dangerous road". Every year it is estimated 200 to 300 people die on the road, in one year alone, 25 vehicles plunged off the road and into the gorge (BBC News). The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners.
The La Paz-Coroico highroad was modernized during a 20 year period ending in 2006. The modernization included widening the carriageway from one to two lanes, constructing asphalt pavement, and building a new section between Chusquipata and Yolosa, bypassing to the north one of the most dangerous sections of the old 'Death Road'.
Choking, blinding clouds obscure the way ahead. (BBC News)
This new route features modern construction (bridges, drainage, etc.), multiple lanes, pavement, guardrails, and many other elements that make it considerably safer than the original route. The original North Yungas Road is currently much less used by traffic, although an increasing number of adventure travelers bike it for the thrills.
Roads of Northern Pakistan
The Northern Areas of Pakistan is a home to the four highest Mountain Ranges of the world: Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Pamir, Due to this topography the area contain many dangerous Roads of the world. Some of them are:
i) Road from Chitral to Parsan
The road to Parsan a small village 30 kilometer from Chitral is a nightmare for travelers; from outside of Chitral very few peoples have traveled this road.
Fairy Meadows has been a source of fascination since long for travelers, photographers & painters besides nature lovers. The site overlooks the Raikot Glacier and provides a majestic view of the North Face of Nanga Parbat, the 9th highest mountain of the world. Getting to Fairy Meadows, however, is not an easy task. Part of the trip involves surviving a 15 Kilometer (9 mile), long drive to Tato village (Jail) before hiking another 4 km to Fairy Meadows. It’s an unstable, narrow, unpaved, steep pebble road carved out of the barren hills and of course there aren’t any guardrails to prevent your Jeep from rolling down into the ravine. It is a private road built by Brigadier Muhammad Aslam owner of Shangrila hotels.
Reward after passing the horrible road(credit:tanveersattar)
iii) Karakoram Highway (KKH)
A 1300 km long highway, originates from Havelian, about 100 kilometers from Islamabad (Capital of Pakistan), connecting Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan to Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region of China. It is also one of the most dangerous highways of the world. You can read more about KKH as a separate post here...
Guoliang Tunnel in Taihang Mountains (China)
The Guoliang Tunnel is carved along the side of and through a mountain in China. The tunnel is located in the Taihang Mountains which are situated in the Henan Province of China. Before the tunnel was constructed, access to the nearby Guoliang village was limited to a difficult path carved into the mountainside. The village is way up on a mountain. The only way to reach it was to travel through valley surrounded by towering mountains, and then climb the Sky Ladder. In 1972 a group of villagers led by Shen Mingxin decided to carve a road into the side of the mountain. They raised money to purchase hammers and steel tools. Thirteen villagers began the project. The tunnel is 1.2 kilometers (0.75 mi) long, 5 meters (16 ft) tall and 4 meters (13 ft) wide. Some of the villagers died in accidents during construction. On 1 May 1977 the tunnel was opened to traffic.
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Several walls have been built since the 5th century BC that are referred to collectively as the Great Wall, which has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi). This is made up of 6,259.6 km (3,889.5 mi) sections of actual wall, 359.7 km (223.5 mi) of trenches and 2,232.5 km (1,387.2 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was mainly built from rammed earth, stones, and wood. During the Ming Dynasty, however, bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as were materials such as tiles, lime, and stone.
It has become a space-based myth. The Great Wall of China frequently billed as the only man-made object visible from space. It certainly isn't visible from the Moon.
Rafflesia arnoldii is noted for producing the largest individual flower on earth. This rare flower is found in the rainforests of Indonesia. It can grow to be 1 meter (3 feet) across and weigh up to 7 kg (15 pounds) it is a parasitic plant, with no visible leaves, roots, or stem. It attaches itself to a host plant to obtain water and nutrients. When in bloom, the Rafflesia emits a repulsive odor, similar to that of rotting meat. This odor attracts insects that pollinate the plant.
Amorphophallus titanum in “Wilhelma Botanical
and Zoological Gardens” Stuttgart, Germany taken by Lothar Grünz.
Another enormous flower found in Indonesia is the Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan arum. It is also known as the "corpse flower" for its unpleasant odor. Like the Rafflesia, the Titan emits the smell of rotting flesh to attract pollinators. Technically, the Titan arum is not a single flower. It is a cluster of many tiny flowers, called an inflorescence. The Titan arum has the largest unbranched inflorescence of all flowering plants. The plant can reach heights of 2 to 4 meter (7 to 12 feet) and grows from the underground corm. The corm is the largest known, weighing around 50 kilograms (110 lb). In 2005, the tallest bloom in cultivation, some 2.74 m (8 ft. 11 in.) high, was achieved at the Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn in Germany in 2003. The event was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records.
On 20 October 2005, this record was broken at the botanical and zoological garden Wilhelma in Stuttgart, Germany. The bloom reached a height of 2.94 m (9 ft. 6 in.).
The Giant Amazon Water Lily, Victoria Amazonica, is found growing naturally in the region of central Brazil known as Amazonia. The immense leaves are the largest of all plants. Some could be as big as 2.65 m (8 ½ feet) diameter and carry a weight of 45kg (100 pounds) spread evenly. The beauty of this plant is not only in the size of the leaf but also the beautiful patterned veins underneath that support the leaf's weight. The stems can reach as much as eighteen feet from the river bottom along the banks.
The incredible leaves unfurl from only 15cm (6 inch) to 2m (6 ½ feet) in 2-3 weeks - you can virtually watch them grow! The first flowers of the giant amazon water lily normally appear with buds up to 20cm across! The stunning flowers last for only 3 days, changing from pure white to delicate pink and purple.
The pure-white flowers open during the evening with a pineapple-like fragrance. A chemical reaction inside the flower heats the bloom to as much as 12°C (20°F) above the ambient temperature, helping to disperse the perfume and attract the scarab beetle pollinator. This flower is initially female and receptive to pollen carried by a beetle from another flower. As daylight approaches the flower shuts, trapping the beetle. During the day, the flower becomes male and produces pollen that coats the beetle as it tries to escape. The flower reopens the following evening as a dark pink. This color is unattractive the pollen-coated beetle which travels to another white flower.
Air-plants grow on the upper branches of tall trees non-parasitically, depending on the host only for support. Most plants get water and nutrients through their roots in the ground. For an air-plant, with their roots planted in the tree tops or sometimes upon some other object, this isn't an option. But they have a solution. First, the bare roots have an extraordinary ability to soak up water like blotting paper. The slightest rain or mist, and they absorb every drop.
They also have a way of gathering nutrients. Their roots trap falling leaves which eventually rot and provide the plants with their own personal supply of compost. 20,000 different plants -orchids, bromeliads and ferns have taken up this remarkable lifestyle.
Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals typically insects. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings.
Five basic trapping mechanisms are found in carnivorous plants.
1. Pitfall traps (pitcher plants) trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains a pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria.
2. Flypaper traps use sticky mucilage.
3. Snap traps utilize rapid leaf movements.
4. Bladder traps suck in prey with a bladder that generates an internal vacuum.
5. Lobster-pot traps force prey to move towards a digestive organ with inward-pointing hairs
Pitcher plant
Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. Flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual temptations and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved.
The Venus Flytrap, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. If the prey is unable to escape, it will continue to stimulate the inner surface of the lobes, and this causes a further growth response that forces the edges of the lobes together, eventually sealing the trap hermetically and forming a 'stomach' in which digestion occurs. Digestion is catalyzed by enzymes secreted by glands in the lobes. Digestion takes about ten days, after which the prey is reduced to a husk. The trap then reopens, and is ready for reuse.
Sundews comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants. They capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition that sundews are able to obtain from the soil in which they grow.
Sundews are characterized by the glandular tentacles, topped with sticky secretions.. Small prey, mainly consisting of insects, are attracted by the sweet secretions of the peduncular glands. Upon touching these, the prey becomes entrapped by sticky mucilage which prevents their escape. The plant meanwhile secretes enzymes. These enzymes both dissolve the insect and free the contained nutrients. The nutrient soup is then absorbed through the leaf surface and can then be used to help fuel plant growth.
Espalier is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth by pruning and tying branches so that they grow in relatively flat planes, frequently in formal patterns, against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis.
Espalier, trained into flat two dimensional forms are ideal not only for decorative purposes, but also for gardens in which space is limited.
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) (Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم; Chinese: 喀喇昆仑公路) is the highest paved international road in the world.
The highway, originates from Havelian, about 100 kilometers from Islamabad (Capital of Pakistan), connecting Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan to Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region of China. The Karakoram Highway (KKH), which was blasted and bulldozed through an intractable landscape of furious rivers, deep gorges and sheer mountains in the 1960s and ’70s. It is a 1300 km marvel of engineering, around 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese constructors died during the construction. Some say that due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the “Ninth Wonder of the World.” Karakoram Highway also known as Silk Road, as it traces one of the many paths of the ancient Silk Route. It is the highest border crossing in the world, over 4800 meters (roughly 16,000 feet) in the Khunjerab Pass at the border. For comparison, Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Western Europe, is 4810 m and Mount Whitney, the highest point in United States, is 4421. The notable places that can be directly seen while traveling on the highway are:
Indus River
Nanga Parbat, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, 9th highest Peak of the world at 8,126m
Gilgit River
Junction Point of the three Great Mountain Ranges - Karakorum, Himalaya and Hindu Kush
Rakaposhi, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, 27th highest Peak of the world at 7,788m
Diran, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, most dangerous mountain in Pakistan
Hunza River
Minapin Glacier
Passu Glacier
Cathedral Peaks near Passu
Ghulkin Glacier
Khunjerab National Park
Highest Border Crossing in the World
Karakul Lake in Xinjiang (China)
KKH & Indus River
Bridge on Indus River at KKH ( credit: Syed Suhaib)
This is the junction point of 'the three mightiest mountain ranges in the word'. The middle one is of course the Karakoram (black stone) range. The mountain on the left is part of the Hindu Kush range and the one on the right is part of the Himalaya
