Top 8 Amazing Sand Castles in the Philippines

Top 8 Amazing Sand Castles in the Philippines

 Here are our top favorite sand castle designs in the Philippines

The list of ingredients for creating a simple sandcastle is misleadingly short: sand, water and a few digging and carving tools.

Sand

The first and most important thing you need to know about sand is that you can't do a thing with it unless it's wet. Here's why: when you add water to grains of sand, the liquid forms "bridges" that connect the granules to one another. This is why damp sand sticks together, so you can shape and carve it.

Packing down or "tamping" wet sand drains more water more quickly, creating even shorter bridges and an even more solid clump. Sand that has been compacted in this way can be subjected to extreme carving.

Water

1 Use lots of water. Dry sand in its natural state is lazy stuff. It wants to lie down and spread out into all sorts of nooks and crannies. The good news is that as long as you keep gravity working for you, there is really no way to add too much water. Which brings us to our second rule.

2 Let it drain. If you've ever tried to make the base of a sandcastle by filling a plastic bucket with wet sand and then trying to unmould it, you've seen how important this rule is. With no place for the excess water to drain off, the sand makes a sucking, sticking, vacuum seal with the plastic and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to remove the bucket.

This is why successful sand sculptors do not use plastic buckets or other closed moulds but build their shapes by stacking handfuls of wet sand or by tamping it down in a topless and bottomless form.

3 Compact the wet sand to form structures. "Pounding sand into submission" is an intuitive and time-honoured method of strengthening and tightening those bridges that hold the grains together. You can use your hands or feet, or even a tamper, to compact wet sand.

Dig a water hole

If you're building at the beach, the best way to obtain an unlimited supply of H2O is by digging a self-replenishing water hole. Start digging.

Keep digging until you hit water. Don't worry about how wide the hole is – you're aiming for depth, not width. The hole will get wider as you pull wet sand from its depths. Keep in mind that you're digging a well here, not a moat. When the water starts puddling at the bottom of your hole, you can stop digging.

The fail-safe recipe for castle concrete is one part sand to one part water. Pour the water in the big bucket first, then shovel in the dry sand for easier blending. Mix thoroughly and you're ready to scoop.

Pile the sand you excavate for your water hole into a mound about 1ft from the edge of the hole. Pack your mound of sand into a round, level base that is 2-3ft in diameter. This will serve as the foundation for your castle, giving you some added height and providing drainage for all the water you're going to use in construction.