Christmas Island

Once a year, an entire island stops for its crabs, tens of millions of them marching from the rainforest to the ocean in one of the most extraordinary wildlife migrations on Earth, roads closed and bridges built just for their crossing. Rainforest covers most of the island, thick enough that walking trails feel more like tunnels through green. Whale sharks pass through the surrounding waters in season, close enough to swim alongside without a cage or a crowd. Few places on Earth stop everything for a single species.