THE SURREAL ICE CREAM DUNES OF AUSTRALIA - sand dunes that seem to be cool, but are sweltering hot

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Another Earth: Stunning photos capture Australia's other-worldly 'Ice Cream Dunes' where the sand is so pale it looks like snow

• Jordan Cantelo from Perth found the sand dunes outside of a coastal town of Lancelin in Western Australia, where they run for 50 miles
• Nicknamed the 'Ice Cream Dunes' they can reach up to 98ft in height and run for almost 50 miles along the coast
• The sand is so pale that it looks like snow giving the impression the images are of an arctic tundra

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DESERT DUNES TAKE OVER ABANDONED HOUSES IN NAMIBIA - See the surreal and haunting images

Swallowed by sand: Stunning images reveal haunting beauty of abandoned wooden houses in Namibian desert ghost town.

 

These hauntingly beautiful images reveal what’s left of family homes that are filled with sand in a once prosperous mining town deep in an African desert.  Abandoned for more than half a century, the ghost town of Kolmanskop, in the Namib Desert in southern Namibia, would serve as the perfect backdrop for a horror film or apocalyptic thriller.

 

The German-style village flourished after diamonds were discovered in 1908 but its decaying homes were left to rot after the mining field was exhausted.  It was completely abandoned in 1954 and is now said to be haunted.   Sand has infiltrated the windowless and, in some cases, roofless homes, leaving small dunes inside bedrooms, corridors and kitchens where families used to reside in the mining town’s heyday.

 

Kolmanskop was once home to a hospital, school, ballroom, theatre, casino and the first tram in Africa, offering the finer things in life to the German miners and their families.  But it is now a popular destination for curious tourists and explorers, including photographer Enrique Lopez-Tapia, who snapped photos of the surviving wooden houses. 

 

 

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DUNES AREA IN INDIANA THAT SWALLOWED A BOY NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC - Number of sinkholes increasing - Reason unknown.

Indiana Dunes - Wikipedia photo

NPR - Massive sand dunes make up the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Tucked between coal plants and steel mills, the dunes are as high as 200 feet, stretching along the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan.

 

These dunes were formed some 14,000 years ago, and most are now covered in forest, says Park Ranger Bruce Rowe, who has worked at the lakeshore for 30 years.

 

"Most of the dunes at Indiana Dunes, people don't recognize as dunes, because they're hiding under an oak forest," Rowe says.   But one dune, Mount Baldy, is different. It's a big pile of sand with not a blade of beach grass to speak of, just a couple scruffy trees struggling to survive.  Rowe says that's partly because of the dune's popularity. About 200,000 people visit the park each year, almost all to get their feet on Mount Baldy.