Nature is always amazing, but sometimes it pulls a really freakish rabbit out of a hat. Here's where to catch the strangest of the strange natural sights, taken from Lonely Planet's new book, 1000 Ultimate Sights.
CATATUMBO LIGHTNING, VENEZUELA
Centred on the mouth of the Río Catatumbo at Lago de Maracaibo, this strange phenomenon consists of frequent flashes of lightning with no accompanying thunder. The eerie, silent electrical storm, referred to as Catatumbo Lightning, can be so strong and constant (150 to 200 flashes per minute) that it's possible to read by it at night, and it's said to be the world's largest single generator of ozone. Various hypotheses have been put forth to explain the lightning, but the theory that stands out is that cold winds descending from the Andes clash with hot, humid air evaporating from the lake, producing the ionisation of air particles.
On average, storms occur on 150 nights each year and are at their fiercest at times of high humidity.
PITCH LAKE, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Once thought of as a punishment from the gods, this bubbling lake of pitch is perhaps Trinidad's greatest oddity. Birdwatchers will find it of interest as well for the species it attracts. The 40-hectare expanse of asphalt is 90 metres deep at its centre, where hot bitumen is continuously replenished from a subterranean fault. The lake, one of only three asphalt lakes in the world, has the single largest supply of natural bitumen, and as much as 300 tonnes are extracted daily. The surface looks like a clay tennis court covered with wrinkled elephant-like skin, and during the rainy season you can sit in its warm sulphurous pools.
The lake is 22km southwest of San Fernando near the town of La Brea; guided tours are available – high heels are not recommended.
LAMBERT GLACIER, ANTARCTICA
In a world of shrinking glaciers it's nice to know there's always Lambert Glacier. The world's longest glacier drains about 8 per cent of the Antarctic ice sheet and is up to 400km long and 200km wide at the point where it reaches the 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
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