15 lesser-known natural wonders that will take your breath away

Hidden in Europe’s last jungle along Bosnia’s Trebižat River is a series of waterfalls set in spectacular scenery. “The entire area is exceptionally green with chaste trees, poplars and figs,” says Samer Hajric, mountain guide and program coordinator. “The rock and tuff formations host thick lichen, moss and grass, giving them an emerald colour – there are hardly any man-made formations near the falls to interfere with the natural environment.” While the Kravice waterfalls are not big in terms of size, they are comparable to Krka or Plitvice National Parks in Croatia, but are less busy, explains Hajric.

Located in Los Flamencos National Reserve in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon) is one of the country’s most unique locations. The shimmering sand dunes and moon-like sculptures make for a dramatic landscape. “No other place in the world can be compared to this one, with no water, no fauna, and no flora,” says travel manager, Malcolm Parkinson. “There are salt flats, geysers, altiplanic lagoons and volcanoes,” says Parkinson.

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This serene-looking lake set in northern Tanzania is so corrosive that it is believed the water can burn the skin and eyes of animals that are not adapted to it, turning them into mummies. The water alkalinity comes from the sodium carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake from the surrounding hills as well as from the mineral rich hot springs that feed the lake. Shallow (less than three metres) but vast (56 kilometres long), Lake Natron boasts an average temperature of 40° Celsius and an abundance of cyanobacteria, a bacterium with red pigment, which gives the lake its characteristic red and orange glow. Despite its saltiness, the lake is home to a thriving ecosystem and serves as a breeding ground for about 2.5 million Lesser flamingos (a species of flamingos) who thrive on the cyanobacteria.

Kwang Si Falls is a three-level waterfall about 29 kilometres south of the ancient capital of Luang Prabang. Vibrant blue water flows down the falls through a series of pools, smaller at the top and widening as the water falls into the jungle river. “Northern Laos offers natural beauty with meandering rivers flanked by jungle-clad hills and karst mountains,” says senior travel manager and former Laos guide, Tom Harari. “While not as grand as Iguazu or Victoria Falls, the park is a serene place that combines falls and cascades, a green jungle and turquoise pools.”

Sossusvlei, which translates to ‘dead-end marsh,’ is set in Africa’s largest conservation area, the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Characterised by the large red dunes that surround it, Sossusvlei is a vast, white salt and clay pan with dunes that reach more than 365 metres high. While the area remains dry most years, any unusually rainy seasons turn the pan into a glassy lake, reflecting the surrounding dunes. “From the timeless sand rippling across towering dunes to the skeleton trees of Deadvlei (one of Sossusvlei’s most popular pans), Sossusvlei is captivating,” says Michele Harvey, Southern Africa region travel manager.

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The Makgadikgadi Pan, a salt pan set in the middle of the dry savannah of northeastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. Actually a collection of several pans surrounded and intersected by the Kalahari Desert, Makgadikgadi Pan extends across 16,058 square kilometres all within the Kalahari Basin. As a remnant of the now dried up Lake Makgadikgadi, the pan is dry, salty clay much of the year, but during years of abundant rain, some of the pans flood, becoming grassy plains and attracting wildlife such as zebra and wildebeest as well as flamingos, which flock to the Nata Sanctuary by the thousands. “The experience of the Makgadikgadi Pan is one of vastness,” says Harvey.

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Source: RD.com