The delta forms where the river empties into a basin in the Kalahari Desert, creating a maze of lagoons, channels and islands where vegetation flourishes, even in the dry season, and wildlife abounds.

I am on the dock of the last major town on the Irrawaddy, in the delta region where greenery has replaced the desert scrub of the dry zone.

Then, with the withering of dry and cold climate, there appeared stiff clay sediment in the delta of the Changjiang River.