DANGEROUS PLACES ON EARTH

There are some places on earth you should never visit, no matter how much you need a holiday. I don't want to put you off traveling for life, and you won't believe just how dangerous our planet can be. Some of these places are:

Death Valley.

Imagine a place so hot that if you get hungry, you can simply fry an egg on the ground. This is a reality in Death Valley in California, a boiling desert basin where temperatures have been known to rise as high as 134 degrees Fahrenheit, or 56 degrees Celsius.

That's the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth. Meanwhile, four surrounding mountain ranges mostly prevent rain clouds from forming in the area and keep the valley in perpetual drought. For this reason, every Death Valley sightseer runs the risk of heatstroke and dehydration, with one to three deaths per year from heat-related causes. Visitors also need to keep a watchful eye out for the valley's teeming population of dangerous animals, including rattlesnakes, scorpions, black widow spiders, and mountain lions.

Oymyankon.

Moving from extreme heat to extreme cold now, nowhere will send a shiver down your spine, quite like Oymyakon in Eastern Russia. This small town of 500 people is Earth's coldest permanently inhabited place. The average low temperature in winter is -58 degrees Fahrenheit but has been known to dip to a tooth-chattering -90. Unsurprisingly, the chilling temperatures make survival difficult. Because pipes freeze, most homes have outhouses with pit latrines instead of plumbed-in toilets. It's hard to grow crops in the frozen soil, so the local diet mainly consists of frozen meat and fish. Something as simple as a flat tire or a lost key could be life-threatening when every second outside brings you closer to a freezing death.

Also, bear in mind that if you do die, the locals will have to burn a bonfire

in the cemetery for several days before the earth has warmth enough to dig a grave. If you do decide to visit Oymyakon, don't forget your wallet.

Keeping warm is an expensive business. To go outside safely, the townspeople must wrap up in thick fur coats that can cost more than $1,5500. As the average wage in Oymyakon is $600 a month, many people take out a mortgage in order to afford the furs they need to survive.

Even with furs, the air is so cold that it'll freeze your eyelashes and saliva

into painful needles within just a few minutes. This place makes the inside of your freezer sound like a tropical paradise.

Skeleton Coast.

You can tell a lot about a place by its name, and the Northern part of the Atlantic coast in Namibia is no exception.16th-century Portuguese sailors named it the Gates of hell. The Bushmen of the Namibian Interior called it

the land god made in anger. Today, it's known as the Skeleton Coast, and as all these creepy names suggest, it's no seaside paradise.

The Skeleton Coast is actually part of the Namib Desert, a vast and hostile landscape where drinkable water is nearly impossible to find. That means that even though you're right next to the sea, you could easily perish from thirst if you didn't bring your own supply of drinking water. As If that wasn't bad enough, the dunes are home to ferocious predators like desert lions, hyenas, cheetahs, and jackals, just waiting to munch on any lost soul.

If you look closely, you'll see the bleached bones of their prey strewn across the sands, a sinister reminder that this place isn't called the Skeleton Coast for nothing. The waters in this region are notoriously dangerous, with strong currents, submerged rocks, thick fogs, and roaring winds. As a result, ships have been running aground on the coast for hundreds of years, adding to its ever-growing collection of ghostly wrecks. Can you imagine surviving a shipwreck only to find yourself trapped on a beach with no water and a lion problem?