Unusual beaches around the world: 10 things you don't expect

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This was published 5 years ago

Unusual beaches around the world: 10 things you don't expect

By David Whitley
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From pink sand to hot springs, it's amazing what you can come across on a beach.

Black sand

New Zealand's North Island is a volcanic hotspot, and this has consequences for a fair few of its west coast beaches, where the sand has been made over millions of years by breaking down volcanic rocks. Therefore, beaches such as Karekare and Piha in Auckland have moody, magnificent black sand that the waves crash into.

The impressive SS Maheno shipwreck lies on the coast of Fraser Island.

The impressive SS Maheno shipwreck lies on the coast of Fraser Island.Credit: Alamy

Pink sand

It's not just volcanoes that make for weird-coloured sand. In the Bahamas, microscopic organisms called foraminifera are abundant in the ocean. They have bright pink or red shells, and when they die, their remains are washed up on the shore, where they mix with the sand and dead coral. This leads to the sand on Harbour Island's imaginatively named Pink Sand Beach taking on a pink tinge.

A plane

This is the life: The Hot Water Beach at Coromandel in New Zealand's North Island.

This is the life: The Hot Water Beach at Coromandel in New Zealand's North Island.Credit: Alamy

The Scottish island of Barra weighs in at only around 60 square kilometres, so has very limited space. And instead of building a landing strip, the islanders decided to make Traigh Mhor beach the airport. The problem is, it's an airport that disappears twice a day – and the Loganair de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters that make the scheduled flights from Glasgow have to make sure they're landing at low tide.

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Cars

Teewah Beach in Queensland is a magnificent 51-kilometre stretch of sand, with multicoloured dunes at the back and rocky outcrops serving as vantage points for whale watching. No wonder it's popular with campers, some of whom pitch up for a few weeks. However, they have to get there, and the main road in these parts is… Teewah Beach. So expect any sunbathing sessions to be interrupted by 4WDs.

A shipwreck

There's a similar story down the east coast of nearby Fraser Island, where the beach doubles as the main highway. But here, there's another headturner to punctuate the long drive north – the shipwreck of the Maheno, which was washed ashore by a cyclone in 1935, and now suffers the indignity of thousands of tourists nosying around it.

Kangaroos

They're more commonly associated with flat paddocks, golf courses and campgrounds, but a few roos like to hop along the sands too. Pebbly Beach in the Murramarang National Park near Jervis Bay is a good reliable spot to see them – as is Cape Hillsborough in Queensland, where they tend to make an appearance at dawn and dusk. The roos at Cape Hillsborough are often spotted among their wallaby pals.

Penguins

Summerland Beach on Phillip Island in Victoria is notorious for the penguins that show up as the sun goes down. But Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, goes one better, with vast hordes of penguins that hang out on the beach, grooming each other and occasionally picking fights, all day long. The main viewing area is all crowded boardwalks, but go a couple of kilometres down to the other end, and you can sit on the sand while they wander around you.

Dinosaur footprints

Geologically, north-western Australia is one of the most uneventful places on earth. Which means that dinosaur footprints created millions of years ago in the sand and rocks have stayed there due to nothing disrupting them since. The hotspot is around Gantheaume Point, at the southern end of Cable Beach, where startlingly visible trails from the long-gone giant lizards can be seen in a clear pattern.

Hot water

At Mercury Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, there are hot springs lurking just beneath the sand between the tidal reaches. Go near low tide, therefore, and you can dig your toes into the sand to feel the hot water. Be warned, though: sometimes it can be uncomfortably, yelpingly hot on the aptly named Hot Water Beach – temperatures can get up to 64 degrees.

Polished glass

What is now known as Glass Beach, near Fort Bragg in Northern California, was once a grim, unceremonious dump site. The dumping stopped in 1967, and what has happened since is basically nature showing off its mysterious powers, aided by human clean-ups of the more unpleasant trash.

The glass was allowed to stay, and over half a century, the waves and sand have smoothed and polished it to become jewellery quality. And, given that it's in multiple colours, that makes the beach rather sparkly.

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