These were massive waves at a 5 km drop off, 100metres from shore. Turtle in front.

Strolling along the long beach next day, never seen so many Crabs of all sorts, more Turtles and sharks, brilliant. Went to pick up hire car owner on missing list, advised to try restaurant owner who wasn’t the owner of the car but took me to where it was just unlocked and waiting (No crime on Island) Most exciting things in last few years were a drunk tourist smashing up the Airport and some big ship laying fibre optic cable.  Lovely to be in a place were nothing locked, houses or cars.

Went to look at potential snorkelling spots , so good driving through thousands of coconut trees, but we couldn’t buy coconut milk on the island? First recommended spot saw lots of very tiny fish but too shallow at low tide. Same at other end of island.

Lets go to Home island restaurant they do a Mee goreng yum yum “Ill have it for Brekkie and Lunch says Steve” Duh Ramadam strikes again “sorry only open from 8.30 till ten selling curry puffs and chips only.

Still so good watching Turtles etc from House garden and worked out we could go in at low tide to get wet and cool down, having turtles swimming around us. Bonus, warm water 29 Degrees, beautiful.

Absolute fantastic motorised canoe trip to see other islands and snorkelling. As for hermit crabs there were hundreds every where we stopped. So many Hawksbill as well as Green Turtles and also one huge turtle, apparently well over 100 yrs old, (named Fossil) never seen such a large one before.

From this we found best place to see turtles and snorkel on our own – definitely need a car, although island not big, walking 6.5km each way carrying gear was a bit much in the heat.

Watching sunrise one morning, saw someone mowing lawn with a headtorch – a first for me.

Off to direction island which used to be a vital link in worldwide communications and where HMAS Sydney attacked the Cruiser Emden in 1914. Did I mention crabs as soon as we sat down they were all around climbing on shoes etc. Snorkelling here is a rip, told to get in at end of island – so hard clambering over rocks and trying to put flippers on while waves bashing you back on rocks.  Turned out not much current at all (weather and tide time) so could have gone off the beach and swam back.  Not so later in the morning as the rip got stronger as the tide went out.  Good coral and fish, no turtles.

Went for a walk around island the seaward side was covered in rubbish apparently drifting over from Asia such a shame but there was a clean up day booked, hope they got a big skip.

Great stuff freight ship arrives fresh food yah!, but no luck as according to owner (from Middlesex) as its Ramadam and will probably take 3 weeks to unload.

One of the island walks was stunning, but unfortunately so many mozzies, incredible numbers.  Went to look for birds at Inner Lagoon and an airways personnel came to move us on, too close to the end of the runway – no fences here.

A very interesting round of golf playing across an international runway only one in world didn’t seem to be any rules just drink a lot and mess around, great fun though.

Talking to the locals after you find out all you wish you knew before you came – like bring all your own meat etc.  Even though you have to fill in customs form about bringing stuff in – you can as long as it is in a polystyrene box.

Restaurants are also interesting – you have to put your name on a board before 4pm if you want to eat that evening  – not that we did any time.

The only place left now to see this amazing skink, Blue Tailed Shining Skink. (Introduced, once was a Christmas Island endemic).

Off to Xmas Island !.

Wow, how different can 2 islands be, Cocos was mainly flat and Christmas is very hilly, basically the top of an old volcano rising out of the sea.    Population here is around 1800 and around 3000 tourists per year, supermarkets are definitely better stocked although it is the same 3 week delivery run.

Vegetation is amazing, very dense and with such variety of flora.  Driving is slow as there are still so many crabs on the road, even though the main migration was Nov-Dec.  Some roads also still closed due to crabs so only one very very bad road to the other end of island, massive holes. So between avoiding crabs and holes very exhausting driving for Steve.

Arriving at our historic bungalow in Flying Fish Cove was a bit of a shock, the whole area is very industrial and the blocks of units for miners very run down looking.  The Cove does not look appealing and we struggle to see how it could be great snorkelling.

Most of the island is a National Park with some great walks – and possibly good snorkelling at a number of beaches but weather at sea far too rough.  Walks were great and apart from being amazed at the numbers of red crabs we were so excited when we found our first Robber Crab which can get to 150cm long (inc stretched legs).

In the end we saw loads from small to pretty large and such a variety of colours, cream, yellow, orange and blue mixes.  Great Forest scenery too.

Lucky we have a car for the whole time – so much to do, very different from Cocos.  We fill every day with walks in the National Park and snorkelling in Flying Fish Cove which turned out to be amazing.  Lots of Coral and many fish straight of the beach or jetty and quite protected too.  Tried to get a boat out for snorkelling with Whale Sharks but all 4 companies said their boats were out of the water for repair…… Odd.

Golf Course was interesting but we only played a couple of holes due to damaged toe (accidently kicked a rock on a walk).  Great place for birds though – as is the whole island.

Amazing numbers of Lesser, Great and Christmas Island Frigatebirds nesting, along with Red Footed, Brown and the Endangered Abbots Booby.  White and Red Tailed Tropicbirds are so fun to watch too with their tails streaming.  All bar one Endemic bird is easy to find, we did not even try for the other.

Had such a great time here and so busy the time just flew but now off we go back to Perth and a new adventure.

List of Identified Species

COCOS KEELING ISLANDS
Green Turtle
Hawksbill Turtle

Black Tipped Reefshark

Dot and Dash Goatfish
Goldsaddle Goatfish
Oriental Sweetlips
Twoline Monocle Bream

Common Noddy
Great Frigatebird
Green Jungefowl
Intermediate Egret
Lesser Frigatebird
Pacific Reef Heron
White Breasted Waterhen
White Tern

Rat

Hermit Crabs
Land Crab
Purple Crab

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Abbott’s Booby
Brown Booby
Christmas Island Frigatebird
Christmas Island Goshawk
Nankeen Kestrel
Lesser Frigatebird
Great Frigatebird
Red Footed Booby
Red Tailed Tropicbird
Tree Sparrow
White Tailed Tropicbird

Bigtail Fusilier
Black Boxfish
Black Spotted Puffer
Blackvein Parrotfish       
Bluespine Unicornfish
Chevroned Butterflyfish
Citron Butteflyfish
Convict Surgeonfish
Doublebar Goatfish
Eclipse Pigfish
Eyebar Surgeonfish
False Cleanerfish
Fiveband Wrasse
Greenfin Parrotfish
Honeycomb Rock Cod
Indo Pacific Damselfish
Latice Butteflyfish
Longnose Butteflyfish
Lined Butterflyfish
Meyers Butterflyfish
Moorish Idol
Orangeblotch Surgeonfish
Orangelined Triggerfish
Ornate Hawkfish
Peacock Rock Cod
Powdeblue Surgeon
Racoon Butterflyfish
Red Bass
Sixband Parrotfish
Threadfin Butterflyfish
Velvet Surgeonfish
Wedgetail Triggerfish
Yellow Boxfish
White Trumpetfish
White Spotted Surgeonfish
Yellow Trumpetfish
Yellowhead Parrotfish

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