Amery Ice Shelf. The shelf itself is a seaward extension of the Lambert, and is a source for one of the rarest and most beautiful sights in the natural world: bottle-green icebergs, resulting from the high content of organic material inside the ice.
Getting to this extremely isolated part of Antarctica requires a long voyage and isn't cheap, so it is visited only rarely – just one or two tourist ships a year come here.
DON JUAN POND, ANTARCTICA
Antarctica's Dry Valleys are remarkable enough in what is already an impressive continent: huge, desolate spaces covering 3000-square-kilometre without snow or ice. Here, algae, bacteria and fungi, some of it thought to be 200,000 years old, have been found growing inside rocks. The Onyx River flows inland from the coast and there's a lake, Lake Vanda, that is a balmy 25°C at its bottom. There's also Don Juan Pond, which is only 10 centimetres deep but the most saline body of water on the planet, 14 times saltier than the ocean. It is so salty, in fact, that this shallow pond never freezes, even at temperatures of -55°C.
Vanda Station, 14km east of Don Juan Pond, is the closest settlement. Don't expect bright lights – it's only staffed temporarily by a small band of researchers.
RED LAND CRABS, AUSTRALIA
For most of the year you'll see little of the red land crabs of Australia's Christmas Island. They live in shady sites inside the forest that covers much of the island's plateau. Then, suddenly, at the beginning of the wet season, in around October or November, more than 100 million enormous red crabs suddenly emerge, breaking out of the forest like escapees, climbing down cliff faces and – more dangerously – crossing roads. All this so the female crabs can release their eggs into the Indian Ocean at precisely the turn of the high tide during the moon's last quarter.
Schedules are irregular, but you can fly to Christmas Island from Perth (www.virginblue.com.au) or Kuala Lumpur (www.malaysiaairlines.com).
SOLAR ECLIPSE, AUSTRALIA
For millennia, eclipses have fascinated those who witness them; Homer wrote about a total eclipse in the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey. Eclipses are some of nature's most awe-inspiring spectacles, and great excuse for a party. Solar eclipses occur a couple of times a year, but the total blocking of the sun is only visible from a small part of the earth's surface. A total solar eclipse will take place on 13/14 November 2012, and Cairns, in far north Queensland, will be one of the best places on earth to witness the incredible event.
Make your way to festival events being planned in Cairns and surrounding regions: details can be found at www.solareclipse2012.com.
RAIN OF FISH, HONDURAS
Virtually every year in June or July, dark storm clouds gather over the small town of Yoro and unleash a tremendous summer rainstorm. In the downpour appear thousands of silvery fish, flopping on the ground. Locals believe the phenomenon is nothing less than an act of god. They trace its origin to a 19th-century Spanish missionary who prayed for a miracle to feed the people. Biologists say it can be explained scientifically, but have yet to provide any conclusive evidence. Either way you look at it, it's an occasion for a party: the annual Festival de la Lluvia de Peces includes parades, music and lots of fried fish.
Base yourself in bustling San Pedro Sula, with its great entertainment and nightlife; from here it's a three-hour bus ride to Yoro.
MORNING GLORY CLOUDS, AUSTRALIA
Be up bright and early at dawn for the chance to watch a meteorological wonder roll into northern Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria. The Morning Glory is a tubular cloud (or series of clouds) up to 1000km in length, that rolls across the sky in the early morning, pushing great updrafts ahead of it. It's these updrafts that have made it one of the great places for gliding and hang-gliding adventures. First soared in 1989, Morning Glories have carried gliders for more than 700km and up to six hours.
The Morning Glories usually occur from September to late October. Burketown in northern Queensland makes a g