Australia
Australia
| Cocos Keeling | Christmas Island |
My trip to Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling fulfilled one of my longest dreams. These islands are 2700km and 2300km away from Perth, and are 300km from Jakarta. They are also the Australian territories farthest to the west from Australia.
There are flights from Bali and Perth to these islands. Flights from Perth is better because National Jet System schedules them regularly throughout the year. With these flights you can plan your trip better ahead of time.
Because they are far away from other countries, the endemic flora and fauna on these islands are well preserved. They were built by volcanic activities approximately one million years ago, and lie at the sinking edge of the Eurasia platform which moves 6 cm toward the mainland of Indonesia. So if you want to visit the island, you should hurry! According to scientific studies, these two islands will sink under Indonesia in two million years.
Cocos Keeling is an atoll consisting of 27 islands. In the middle of the atoll is a big lagoon whose most part will be dry while low tide. Such structure saved Cocos Keeling from the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. As the wave approached the islands, it emptied the water completely from the lagoon, preparing it ready to refill a large mass of water before flooding the islands.
Only two islands are populated, and two more can be visited in a certain season of the year. The rest of islands are under strict nature conservation, therefore only rangers can go in. My attempt to visit North Keeling Island which is the most securely protected was approved with a hefty fee. I had to pay for the authority and for boat. It costed me more than the flights of whole trip to Cocos and Christmas Island from Germany. People from West Australia lived on West Islands where I rented my bungalow.
The other populated island is on the East side of the atoll and is called "Home Land." Malayen settled on this island over 200 years ago. The two islands are very different and you must visit both. There is a boat you can take to get to the other island in 15 minuets. It costs only 2AU$$ (about 1 Euro).
West Island is about 14km long. The settlement is in the middle of the island. Airport and runway are there also. Only twice a week, a small passenger plane lands here. You can see many birds and golfers playing match over the runway. Other than that, there are not very much on the island. A supermarket, a pub and a telecentre.... that's all. Anyone who wants fancy night life should not come to Cocos Keeling. People who look for nature and silence will notice immediately after arrival how wonderful Cocos Keeling is.
Cocos Keeling has a long history including the world war II. In 1914, a German warship Emden was destroyed by an Australian cruiser Sydney by the coast of North Keeling Island. It was the first sea battle Australians won. Emden's wreck lies 8 meters deep in the water not far away from the beach today. Before Emden sank, it destroyed a part of the local telegraph station and a boat shipyard on Direction Island. Divers and snorkelers can visit it when the sea is calm.
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The nature of Cocos Keeling is truly beautiful. Cocos Keeling is a right name for the islands. Hundreds of coconutpalms are everywhere, and you can walk on beautiful bays and beaches that we find in vacation brochures.
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Numerous birds and landcrabs live on this island. It is an absolute paradise for nature lovers. Birds are timid, so you will need a big zoom lens to photograph them. The endemic brown landcrabs are fearless. After sunset, they walk around the grass and palm trees looking for food, such as grass and plants. Photographing them is easy. Be careful, though, camera flash scares them. That changed their harmless nature and they started attacking me. Completely taken by surprise for the first time, I used my camera as shield to protect myself from the crab's claws. The next time I was prepared well to protect myself. Their claws are as big as my hand as you can see in the below photo:
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I have to tell you one thing. It's not easy to swim or snorkel on Cocos Keeling. Because of strong wind, the barrier reef around atoll have very big waves. Big tide change can cause very strong current, when that happens, it is impossible to swim against the water. Only Direction Island is safe for swiming and snorkeling. Unfortunately there are many tourists who causes damages to coral. Nonetheless, trip to Cocos Keeling is fantastic. You will fall in love with it by the view of atoll from airplane before landing.
Besides Cocos Keeling, Christmas Island was my main interest. Eighty (80) percent of its 136qkm² land is under nature conservation zones and the island is called "King of Crabs".
Nowhere in the world has nearly as much land crabs as Christmas Island in a concentrated area. There is not a day that you don't see a crab on this island where 13 kinds of land crabs live. Most of them cannot be found anywhere in the world except here. Red crabs have the largest population, more than 200 million of them live throughout the year in the jungle. The mating season starts in late October to November, sometimes lasting as late as in January, depending on when and how much it rains. Triggered by the rain season, males migrate first to beaches from the forest, and wait for females to arrive approximately a week later. After mating, males return to the forest, while females stay around the beach for eggs to mature before ready to release in the water. I visited Christmas Island in December 2005. I was not disappointed.
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Another crab species, palm crab, used to live throughout the tropical region many years ago but they are practically extinct in most places after being hunted by humans as food. Today, a reasonable number of them live on Christmas Island as the result of a loose protection status for consumption. The crabs are called robber crabs by Christmas Islanders, and they are the biggest land crabs in the world. Full grown crab can be 50cm or longer including legs, or its body about the size of a basketball. They grow so slow, it is estimated 100 years to grow for that size. If you lost something in the forest, don't bother going back. They will find it before you get there, and rob the item. You should be careful observing these robbers because their claws are strong enough to crack open coconuts. Sometimes in the forest you encounter a scene 50 or more of them gathering in one place....it is a breathtaking sight.
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There is a large number of birds on the island, too. It is easy to observe them closely as they don't fear people. If you go through the jungle to the coast, Ethel Beach for example, you can hear burping sound dolts (red footed bobby or brown bobby) warning intruders. Frigate birds, including great frigate birds, can be also seen very often. In some places I saw 20 or more frigate birds, and one of them flew only a few centimeters over my head.
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All nature lovers will like Christmas Island very much. There are many places only be accessible by 4WD, and once being the jungle, you don't see other people. But animals are everywhere. Although it is much easier to go by car in the hot climate, you have a better chance of seeing animals if you leave your car at a half way point and go by foot. You can also hear birds singing in the jungle. You will miss so much sitting in an air conditioned car with closed windows. So many times tourists in 4WD dashing through the jungle gave me a look of sympathy as they saw me walking on steep hills. I met them in a pub later in the evening, and they couldn't believe how much robber crabs, frigate birds, and other animals I saw. It is also a good idea to walk because you will kill many, many animals without knowing while driving. Robber crabs are especially slow moving. Running over them is like destroying a hundred years of art piece. I often saw red crabs on top of each other run over by cars. First I thought they were in mating process of some kind when they were killed. Turned out, they come out to eat dead crabs crushed on the street, only to be run over themselves, too.
Likewise Cocos Keeling, swimming and snorkeling is also a problem around Christmas Island. You can swim most of time only in Flying fish cove which is the main harbour of the island. Many nice large corals can be seen. About 300 meters away from the shore, the sea floor drops down 5000 meters where you can't expect many fish. Boats are in and out from this bay, and loading station for phosphate ship is located there. Christmas Island originally had no people living until phosphate was discovered. Except few accessible beaches from jungle, most coast line has steep cliffs that fall directly into the water which is very dangerous for strong under current. Some other beaches can be accessible only by boat, but it is not cheap to rent a boat. A trip to outside reef costs 50-80 AUS$ per person.
An Australian told me that the animals on this island have the same behaviour like ones on Galapagos. I hope the island will remain being a little known place, and only a limited number of tourists can visit. A mass tourism will put an end to this beautiful paradise very quickly.
More DVD's about other destinations or poster and mugs you will find in my Shop. Maybe you will find other interested things. I look forward to hear from you.
Everyone who like to tell me his story about Egypt can contact me under ruhnke@eagleray.eu
Thank you
Your
Martin Ruhnke