We continue our journey through the most unusual beaches in the world. We wish you a pleasant viewing!
1. Rainbow Beach, USA
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Pfeiffer Beach, also known as Rainbow Beach, is located in central California, in the sparsely populated Big Sur area of Monterey County, USA. The 1 mile long beach is known for purple sand patches that are sometimes visible, especially after rain.
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The purple color is caused by manganese garnet that was washed away from nearby slopes. Depending on the time of day and lighting, the sand on this beach can take on shades of purple, lilac, pink, reddish and even burgundy.
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Pfeiffer Beach is open from 9:00 to 20:00. It is very popular among tourists. There are four picnic tables here, camping and campfires are prohibited. The beach car park has a capacity of 65 cars and is usually full on summer and holiday weekends.
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Swimming here can be dangerous due to cold water, rocks and strong currents. The weather from June to August can be foggy and cold, known locally as "June Gloom".
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Pfeiffer Beach is one of the most popular beaches on the central coast. It is also famous for Keyhole Rock, a popular subject for photography.
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For a limited number of days in December and January each year, photographers throng the beach to capture photos of the setting sun as it beams fabulously through the archway.
2. Green Beach, Hawaii
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In addition to the Black Beach (we talked about it here ☞) in the Hawaiian Islands there is no less interesting Green Beach Papakolea (Papakolea Beach), also known as Green Sand Beach or Mahana Beach. It is popular with tourists because of the olivine-rich sand found on the beach, which gives the beach its distinctive olive green coloration.
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It is one of only four green sand beaches in the world where the sand gets its characteristic coloration from the abundance of the mineral olivine (iron-magnesium silicate) which erodes from the host volcanic cone (tuff ring) and concentrates on the beach as a less dense matrix ash material.
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The green shade of the beach is given by the semi-precious stone chrysolite (a kind of olivine), which is used in the jewelry industry. Chrysolite is a semi-precious golden-green stone, it consists of silicate of magnesium and iron. And depending on the ratio of these two elements, the stone will have a different shade of green: golden, yellow, pistachio, herbal, olive, brown. Olivine is therefore known as the "Hawaiian diamond" in Hawaii.
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Olivine crystals are thrown ashore from a collapsing cape under the action of the sea. Olivine, being denser than the enclosing ash matrix, tends to accumulate on the beach, while the less dense volcanic sand is washed out to sea. Although these crystals will eventually erode through weathering and chemical attack, the constant erosion of the tuff ring ensures a steady supply of "green sand" to Papacolea Beach for the foreseeable future.
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This beach is lined with rocks from different sides and only on one side has access to the ocean. It is surrounded by pastures and is only accessible on foot. To get to the beach, you need to go down the cone of ash. If you look at Green Sands Beach from a distance, it appears green, but if you get closer, you can see that it turns olive-gold.
3. White Beach, Australia
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Hyams Beach is a world-famous white sand beach located on the shores of Jervis Bay (New South Wales) in Australia. The sand here is so dazzling white that on sunny days you need sunglasses to look at it.
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Hyams Beach along with the popular Australian Whitehaven Beach (we talked about it here ☞) is known for its crystal white quartz sands and turquoise waters. This sand is 98% pure silica and, unlike normal sand, does not retain heat, making it comfortable to walk barefoot on a hot day.
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There is a myth that Hyams Beach has the whitest sands in Australia. Allegedly, even in the Guinness Book of Records, Hyams Beach is on the list of beaches with the whitest sand in the world. But, as it turned out, in the Guinness Book of Records there is not even a category "The whitest beaches."
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This misconception began in the town's main store, Shoalhaven, where there was a billboard stating that the seaside village of Hyams Beach had "the whitest sand." In the end, the idea was widely adopted and was promoted by tourism organizations to attract tourists here (it was featured in television advertisements and featured extensively on social media). Advertising has done its job – the village of Hyams Beach with its white beach has become a world-famous tourist destination. Although in fact the whitest beach in Australia is Lucky Bay, about which in one of our next collections of unique beaches.
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Tourism and infrastructure funding has helped transform Hyams Beach into a hotspot for the NSW tourism industry. Due to the fact that tourists often and massively visit the area, in 2017 the construction of a $580 million freeway and a length of 190 km to Sydney was completed. Now Hyams Beach is perfect for fishing, swimming, snorkeling, diving and whale watching, making it the perfect tourist destination.
4. Pink Beach, Greece
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In the Mediterranean Sea there is an uninhabited island of Elafonisi. It is known for its pink sandy beaches. The island is only 100 meters from the Greek island of Crete, so at low tide, in the absence of waves, you can wade to Elafonisi from Crete.
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Like pink sands on the famous Pink Sands beach in the Bahamas (we talked about it here ☞), such a pink tint to the coast of Elafonisi Beach is given by the deposits of pigmented microorganisms thrown ashore by the waves, living in a symbiotic relationship with local algae. The island is a protected nature reserve.
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5. Golden Beach, Malta
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Ramla Bay Beach is the best beach on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea. This is the real golden coast, it is here that you will see that the expression "golden sand" can be taken literally.
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The sand on this beach has an amazing color that changes throughout the day. In the morning it is golden yellow, sparkling gold in the rays of the rising sun, in the afternoon it has a pink-orange hue, so similar to the color of a ripe peach. And in the evening, the beach turns into a riot of orange, impossibly saturated sand.
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The bay can also be reached from the village of Nadur, from which the bus to the beach runs regularly. Terraced walls built by farmers give the valley a quilt-like appearance when viewed from the high ridges that surround it.
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The beach has two canteens and several ice cream kiosks. Since 2014, the beach has been visited by naturists, and it is strictly forbidden to wear clothes in the northern part of the bay. The beach is surrounded by hills to the west and east, where many local farmers have orchards and orchards.
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Ramla Bay Beach is quite wide and is popular with the people of Malta because it is sandy, which is rare in rocky Malta. Ramla Bay Beach attracts tourists from all over the world with its irresistible color of sand, which makes it unique in the whole world.
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◆The most unusual beaches in the world
