There are some great beaches out this way (see Padang Bai, below) but the beaches along the coast at Candi Dasa are fighting total disintegration with massive concrete walls that hold back the ocean at high tide. When the tourist area was being developed from a small fishing and farming centre the off-shore reef was seen as an easy and convenient source of lime for cement and mortar. The subsequent explosions and burning of the coral destroyed the reefs and with them went the natural protection from the strong Lombok Strait currents leaving the new hotels in frightening danger of simply falling into the scouring sea. What exists now is a sort of pretty, man-made series of groynes and breakwaters that splash up into bridal veils of foam and spray as the waves run along them, but the only sand to be found is very coarse and tucked only into the corners of the protective works.
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