From the highest place in the world to the hottest ever, here are 10 of the most extreme
places to visit…..
10.
Mt. Kilauea, Hawaii
Mount Kilauea, on the southeastern part of the island of Hawaii, is the most active volcano
in the world.
As a part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, it's a large dome that's been formed
from lava eruptions of the central crater and features lines of craters reaching east
and southwest from the central mount.
The 4090-foot high summit has collapsed to form what's known as a caldera, which is a
shallow depression that's almost 3 miles long and 2 miles across… covering an area of
around 4 square miles.
The volcano is thought to be between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and rose above sea level
about 100,000 years ago.
It has seen regular eruptions over the past 30 years, which have destroyed towns and regions
that lay in the path of the lava.
Just last year in 2018, an eruption threw ash 30,000 feet into the air, and forced closures
of the national park, ruined the island's largest freshwater lake, and destroyed 716
homes.
Still, the glow of the lava and the surrounding landscape is something you won’t see anywhere
else, and it simply stunning.
It’s undoubtedly one of the most extreme places you could ever visit, but one that’s
well worth it.
Might be best to see it from the air!
9.
Chimborazo, Ecuador
Did you know that Mount Everest isn’t the tallest mountain??
While Mount Everest might be the tallest peak in the world… because of our planet’s
shape, Mount Chimborazo is actually the furthest point, on land, that you can reach away from
the earth’s core.
Due to the bulge of mass around the equator, it’s 7000 feet closer to space than anywhere
in the Himalayas.
Pretty cool, right?
Who knew??
The Andean stratovolcano is located in central Ecuador and, on a clear day, you can see it
from more than 90 miles away.
The peak is covered in glaciers, which provide water to the surrounding regions… but despite
its seemingly inhospitable terrain, it's a popular site for mountaineering.
There are a number of different routes to reach the summit, which is much more accessible
than many other mountains and, once you’re there, you’ll be able to literally look
down on everything.
8.
Barrow Island, Australia
Barrow Island is a small island in the Indian Ocean, about 30 miles off the northwestern
coast of Australia.
It’s an arid place that was the site of Australia’s first, and richest, commercial
oil field… but it’s the weather here that makes it stand out from everywhere else.
In April of 1996, as the Tropical Cyclone ‘Olivia’ passed over the island, an automatic
weather station recorded the fastest wind speed ever to be detected that wasn't a part
of a tornado… clocking in at a massive 253 miles per hour.
It's thought that the island's unique geography made this possible because the surrounding
sea is so shallow.
Here, any oil retrieved from the ground has to be transported by pipe more than 6 miles
offshore before being loaded into a tanker.
Because there’s not much on the island, travel here is restricted.
If you want the chance to experience the most extreme winds in the world, though, then this
is the place to go.
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7.
Gansbaai, South Africa
There are plenty of dangerous ocean locations around the world but, without a doubt, the
most extreme has to be the waters around the town of Gansbaai in South Africa.
It’s a popular tourist destination for one main reason- the ability to go cage diving
with Great White Sharks.
About 5 miles offshore is Dyer island, a nature reserve that's home to populations of penguins,
and nearby is another island, called Geyser Rock, that's home to around 60,000 Cape fur
Seals.
The narrow channel between these islands is known as shark alley, and is where the highest
density of great white sharks in the world can be found.
I’m sure you can guess why!!
The combination of the large seal population and the presence of the birds and other marine
animals sustains the alpha predators in a small area and means that boat trips are virtually
guaranteed to encounter one.
This is one place that you wouldn't want to go swimming without the safety of a cage,
and even with one, you can come face to face with one of the most powerful and imposing
creatures in the world.
6.
Mount Thor, Canada
Mount Thor in the Auyuittuq (ow-you-ittuk) National Park of Baffin Island, in Canada
has a 5495-foot peak.
It’s in an incredibly remote place, and at first it doesn’t seem like such an extreme
place- after all, it’s one-sixth the height of Everest… but this mountain trumps every
other in one way- it has the highest vertical drop of anywhere in the world.
Named after the Norse god of thunder, the west face of the peak has a 105-degree overhang
of 4,101 feet.
Unsurprisingly this makes it a tough mountain to climb, with the first team only successfully
reaching the top in 1985.
Today, it’s a popular place for BASE jumpers and paragliders to go… but beware- if you’re
a thrill seeker who wants to jump from the world’s tallest cliff, you don’t just
need to worry about the perils of the fall itself… it’s expressly forbidden to do
so by the local authorities because of the difficulty for emergency services to reach
the place if things go wrong.
People are frequently prosecuted for taking the shortcut back from the peak, which makes
it just that little bit more extreme!
5.
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic ocean.
The archipelago is 1,511 miles from Cape Town, 1,343 miles from Saint Helena, and 2,166 miles
from the Falkland Islands… which makes it easily the most remote place on earth.
It takes 6 days to reach the only town, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, by boat, which makes it
a tough place to visit, and even tougher for the 300 locals who live there.
At just 7 miles long, it’s a fairly small island too… but there’s a reason why people
visit here- the amazing wildlife.
The nearby islands are home to rockhopper penguins, sooty albatrosses, and hundreds
of other species.
It’s also a historically important place that was used as a stopover by those crossing
the Atlantic by boat.
Some cruises still stop here, but if you want to visit, you have to board occasional supply
vessels… but even that isn’t easy.
Tourists are at the bottom of an 8 tier hierarchy, which prioritizes the transport of residents,
emergency crews, and official visits over any other.
If you want to get as far away from everything as possible, though, there's no better place
than Tristan da Cunha.
4.
Veryovkina Cave, Georgia
Caves are natural formations where rock has been worn away by water or ice.
They typically are near the surface of the earth but, occasionally, there are ones that
go much deeper, after all we are talking about extremes.
Veryovkina cave in Georgia is the deepest reaching cave that's ever been found, and
the journey to the bottom is more grueling and treacherous than you could imagine.
After a number of attempts by various teams to descend the full depth of the cave, a group
of Russian explorers managed to get there.
It took them a week of climbing to descend all the way, where they measured the depth
as 7,257 feet.
With tight spaces, sheer drops, and new species of animals that have never been seen before,
this descent is not for the faint-hearted… and definitely, the most extreme place to
go underground.
3.
Vostok Station, Antarctica
The Vostok station is a Russian research station in the Princess Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica.
It was built by the Soviets in 1957 on the center of the East Antarctic ice sheet and,
because of its location near the southern magnetic pole, it’s an ideal place to carry
out research into geophysics, medicine, and climatology.
As you can imagine, it’s very, very cold there… and it holds the record for being
the place where the coldest natural measurement ever recorded on earth was made.
During the winter of 1983, it reached -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit… more than 54 degrees
colder than average, and more than 60 degrees colder than the coldest measurement ever made
in the US.
It became somewhat of a mystery why things got so cold that winter, but recently Russian
scientists have been able to explain it.
They found that the relatively warm air that normally passes over the Southern Ocean and
over the area was blocked by a flow of cold air that was circling around Vostok.
With very little cloud cover, and tiny particles of ice that are suspended in the air in such
cold environments… the heat was lost from the continents icy surface more than usual,
and temperatures plummeted.
2.
El Caminito Del Rey, Spain
If extreme walks are your thing, then El Caminito in Spain is well worth a visit.
It’s a suspension bridge on Malaga’s ominously named ‘walkway of death’, which allows
you to walk across El Chorro gorge at a height of 328 feet.
It has recently been repaired because it had fallen into a bad state… but its title of
the world's most dangerous walkway was well earned.
Originally built in the early 1900s to give access for workers at a nearby hydroelectric
power plant, it was made of concrete and steel rails built into the rock face.
In 1999 and 2000, 2 people died in accidents because of its poor state, which resulted
in the bridge being finally closed.
4 further people died a decade later when trying to access the bridge, which led the
local authorities to invest heavily to make a safer alternative, which opened in 2015.
Despite its upgrade… at such a height and location, walkers have to be extremely careful
when traversing this bridge, and it's a must-visit site for any thrill seekers looking for something
a bit different.
1.
Death Valley, California
Death Valley, in California, is the lowest point in North America… reaching 282 feet
below sea level.
It’s what’s known as a graben, which is a sunken block of land between two mountain
ranges, and was once the site of a 100 mile long lake.
As the waters evaporated, and the region turned to desert, the salts were left in the ground
and became an important natural resource in the early 1900s.
What makes this place so special, though, is the temperature…
Death Valley is seriously hot.
One area, known as Furnace Creek, was where the highest ever natural air temperature was
recorded- at a crazy 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Furthermore, it’s also where the highest ground surface temperature has been recorded,
at 201 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is the hottest place recorded on earth.
This harsh terrain needs some serious preparation to visit, but if you want to visit the most
extreme hot environment on earth, it should definitely be on the top of your list.
Just bring some water and make sure you have a full tank of gas and you should be fine!....Right?
Thanks for watching!
Let us know if you’ve been to any of these places in the comments below!
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