10 Beach Facts You Probably Don’t Know
It might not be January any more, but the South African summer is still here in a big way! If you’re like us, you’re probably looking for every opportunity you can grab to visit one of Durban’s golden beaches. Since our two stunning Zimbali ocean villas are situated a stone’s throw from the Dolphin Coast, we thought we’d share a few beach facts you probably didn’t know:
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1.
The biggest sandcastle ever built stood a whopping 11.5m tall and was constructed in Connecticut, USA, circa 2011 -
2.
On average, one out of every three beach visitors can’t swim -
3.
Around 94% of life on planet Earth is aquatic. So, every living thing you see on land is only 6% of the planet’s total population -
4.
We have better maps of Mars than we do of the ocean floor (with only 5% of it having been explored to date) -
5.
London used to have a beach! In 1934, King George V arranged that 1500 tons of beach sand be dumped between St Katherine’s Steps and The Tower of London -
6.
The longest beach in the world is the Praia Do Cassino which stretches a crazy 212km along Brazil’s west coast -
7.
White sand grains are actually little pieces of coral pooped out by the many parrotfish of the oceans -
8.
There are more artefacts and pieces of civilizations past in the world’s ocean than there are in all of our museums combined -
9.
The Mid-Oceanic Ridge is the worlds largest mountain range, stretching a crazy 56,000km underwater -
10.
70% of the oxygen we breathe is produced by Earth’s oceans.