Glass Beach, California

6 Weird and Wonderful Beaches That Will Blow Your Mind

Take a holiday on the wild side and visit one of these quirky beaches

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Glass Beach, California

Located in Fort Bragg, on California’s Mendocino Coast, Glass beach is a dazzling jewel of a beach, literally. Between 1906 to 1967 everything from car batteries to bottles were dumped into the sea from the cliffs and the result has been a trash to treasure triumph. Thanks to mother nature’s resilience, the beach is now covered with smooth sea glass in rainbow colours. Photo by Vadim Kurland.



Pig swimming in the sea

Pig Beach, Bahamas

Pig Beach, one of the uninhabited (by people at least) beaches in the Bahamas was discovered relatively recently. This beautiful beach complete with sugar sands and crystal clear turquoise waters is home to a few dozen pigs who are outdoing celebrities worldwide with their enviable beach bum life. They can’t fly, but they sure do swim! Photo by Norm Lanier.



Surfer riding a wave at Barking Sands

Barking Sand Beach, Hawaii

This beach barks! That’s right; the sand barks like a dog. Due to the type of quarts, the sand granules make a barking noise when rubbed together. This strange sounding but beautiful beach in Kauai, Hawaii also houses a rocket launch site. Kooky! Photo by Thad Westhusing.



Couple in the water at Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay, Australia

Jervis Bay in New South Wales, Australia glows in the dark. This strange and beautiful illumination of the crystal clear waters is thanks to bioluminescent phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that react to tiny changes and movement in the water by giving off light. Isn’t nature fabulous! Photo by Franklin Samir Dattein.



Star-shaped sand

Hoshizuna no Hama, Japan

Situated on the remote Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture, in Japan, Hoshizuna no Hama beach has star shaped sand. Hoshizuna no Hama actually translates to “star sand beach”. How is the sand star shaped? What is this sorcery? Rather than actually being sand, the tiny star shapes are exoskeletons of Baclogypsina sphaerulata – a tiny one-cell organism that lives in the sea grass in enormous numbers. Photo by alexxis.



Black sand on the beach

Punalu'u Beach, Hawaii

Also called Black Sand Beach, Punalu'u doesn’t offer white sand, it’s much more original – black. The black sand, which is totally bizarre when you see it for the first time, is created from volcanic lava flowing into the ocean. Amazing! Photo by Eric.

Published on 7th September 2015 in Misc

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