| Barbuda is one of the Caribbean's tiniest inhabited islands, little more than a shoal of sand held loosely together by scrub and mangrove. Sand is systematically mined there (a questionable ecological practice) and taken by barge to where it will get the best price. Not that supplies of sand are in any immediate danger, if you set off walking around the island, it is said you can go for 17 miles before the sand runs out. Most visitors, however, do not wander too far from Barbuda's two swanky hotels (the K Club and Coco Point Lodge), the location of Barbuda's famous Pink Sand Beach.
Calcareous (coral) sand is often quite coarse in texture because of the large number of shell fragments it contains. Also, a common effect of wind and sea is to make the shell fragments come to the surface and form a gleaming white crust. This accounts for the dazzling white of Cable Beach in Australia; it is also the same process that colours the surface of the Pink Beach in Barbuda, except that the shells there happen to be delicately lobster-coloured, not pure white.
Whatever you might think of Cancun's forbidding line-up of hotels, nobody can deny that its beach is extraordinary. It has a bouncy quality, like walking on deep-pile carpet and the whiteness of its sand reflects the sunlight so well that the beach stays cool and walkable even in the midday heat.
The most perfect of all beaches in the world is, in many people's view, Whitehaven in Australia's Whitsunday Islands. Its sand of almost pure alabaster is unusually white and soft, making a powerful contrast with the monochromatic turquoise sea characteristic of the Whitsundays. The main bay is backed by a perfect, uninterrupted crescent of acacia forest and then, to the north, the beach hooks round to reveal an amazing seascape of shifting piles of alabaster licked by the turquoise sea into swirling abstract patterns subtly changing with each tide. Sea planes buzz overhead as photographers try to catch the ever-changing view. Paradoxically, the trouble with Whitehaven is that it is too perfect. It is a beach without people, without facilities, without fun. You admire it from a distance, then promptly leave on your sea plane or your powerboat.
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