What do you imagine when you think of a beach? Hot beige sands and rolling blue waves? Would it surprise you to learn that there’s a beach out there whose sands are as white as snow? Take a look at the 15 strangest beaches in our world – and try to visit some of them, please!
1. The Black Sand Beach At Iceland
Imagine a beach filled with shiny black sand and littered with huge boulders of white ice. The ice travels to the beach all the way from a glacial pond, while the black sand is made of pulverized, cooled lava.
2. The Red Sand Beach At Maui
You may have heard of or seen red colored beaches, but have you seen a red beach that looks like the inside of a volcano? The red sand that stains the beach’s black stones comes from a cindercone volcanic hill next to the beach.
3. The Official Motorway And Runway Beach In Australia
Fraser Island’s 75 Mile Beach is a motorway, with traffic whizzing past unsuspecting bathers. Oh btw, it’s also an airplane runway, with planes taking off and landing almost on top of people!
4. The Rainforest Beach In Australia
Only in Australia can you find two such diverse ecosystems existing side by side. A rich tropical rainforest spills over the white sands of the Mission Beach, making it a look like a forest beach. Then at night thousands of tiny sand bubbler crabs scurry around carrying sand balls, making the sand move creepily.
5. The Bowling Ball Beach In California
Here’s a beach covered in huge, beautifully symmetric round rocks that look just like bowling balls. Visit the Mendocino Coast at low tide and you’ll wonder if it’s a beach or a bowling alley for giants.
6. The Talcum Powder Beach In Australia
The Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands is made entirely out of the finest silica. You can literally take a powder brush and apply it on your face. Guess what, the NASA uses this fine silica to make their telescopes.
7. The Hot Water Hole Beach In New Zealand
Here’s a beach set on volcanic terrain, with huge underground reservoirs of superheated mineral water. The water contains calcium, potassium, magnesium, fluorine, silica, salt and bromine. On cold days, people bury themselves in holes, and soak in the water heated to 64ºC (147ºF).
8. The Ice White Sand Beach In Australia
What would you say to a beach carpeted with white-as-blown-sugar sands? If you want to know, head to the Hyams beach in Jervis Bay, New South Wales. The Guinness Book of Records lists this beach as the whitest in the world.
9. The Green Sand Beach In Hawaii
You’ve heard of red, white and black beaches, but how about a real-to-goodness green one? The Papakolea Beach in Hawaii is all green because of the olivine crystals from a nearby cindercone volcano. It looks like a green forest from a distance!
10. The Multi-Color Beach In California
Speaking of all the colors, how about a rainbow-hued beach? Head to the Pfeiffer Beach, whose sands are a shifting mirage of pinks, purples and mauves, because of the manganese garnet deposits in the water.
11. The Orange Color Beach In Malta
The Ramla il-Hamra beach in Gozo, Malta, is a bright orange in color! Again, it’s a volcano we should thank for the lovely color. Tiny volcanic deposits mix with rare local orange limestone to turn the beach orange.
12. The Sea Glass Beach In California
Sea glass is actually ordinary bottle glass that forms beautiful textures due to sea water exposure. People like to collect sea glass and even make jewelry out of it. The Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California is strewn with rainbow hued pieces of glass, which make this beach look like something from a fairytale.
13. The Glacier Beach In Alaska
The Prince William Sound in Alaska is a place where various unbelievable combinations of nature’s marvels come together. The beautiful, deep blue waters of the beach are surrounded by black sand, blue glacial ice and green hills. Huge whales leap in the ocean, while the beach abounds with sea otters, seals, eagles and bears.
14. The Disappearing Beach In India
Imagine this – the tide goes out, taking the sea with it. You can run in the empty seabed for 5 kilometers, because that’s how far the sea runs to hide. Have you ever explored a seabed without scuba or snorkeling gear? Well, on this beach in Orissa, India, you can.
15. The Manmade Beach In Portugal
There’s not much sand in Madeira, Portugal, so the government brought in hundreds of tons sand from Western Sahara and created a beach and breakwater system. You won’t know it when you visit the Calheta Beach, though. It looks as real as any beach you’ve ever been to!
Author Bio:
Vidhi is a contributing writer at experience website Adrenalin.com.au, a source of extreme gifts for men and women around Australia.
