Cocos Keeling Islands

---

---

July is the wettest and coldest month in Perth so we take the opportunity of chasing the Australian sunshine & book a couple of week’s holiday. This year we headed to one of the more unusual destinations continuing our ‘Adventure before Dementia’ tour.

Destination... Cocos Keeling Island. I originally read about this place in the Daily Mail featuring the best beaches in the world (so, it must be true) and although I’d never heard of it, this place was also a distant part of Western Australia..... Although to be fair most Aussies have never heard of it either.

The Islands are nearly 3000km from Perth in the middle of the Indian Ocean, half way between Perth and Sri Lanka.

There are 23 Islands although only two Islands are inhabited – West Island which has a small population of Western people and Home Island which is home to the traditional Malay community. The whole population of these small Islands is about 500 people and they are one of the most remote places on earth being so far from any other land mass. There is only accommodation for 120 tourists so flights and a room were booked early.

On Tuesday 7^th July we left a wet and cold Perth and boarded a Virgin Australia flight for Coco’s Keeling via Christmas Island. Five hours later we landed at the tiny airport in equally wet weather .... but it was warm as it always remains a constant and humid 26 - 28 degrees in the tropics.

The airport was a small building with no carousel. Baggage was taken off the plane on a trolley and then luggage was recovered from the trolley yourself. We were met by Graham and Annelies, the owners of 'Cocos Castaways' which was to be our home for the next 11 nights.

I asked about the transfer to our room and they pointed to our bungalow which was about a 20 seconds WALK from the airport! Now, this might be a problem if you were staying near Heathrow but given the fact that there were only two flights per week (and we were on one of them!) it was fine!

Our plane took off and headed back to Perth leaving us feeling slightly isolated, this was really ‘getting away from it all’.

Our unit was perfectly equipped with everything we were going to need - plus a small veranda, communal BBQ and only 20m from the West facing beach. Perfect for sundowners!

The bar was the social centre of the community so we unpacked and then popped along to announce Madam's arrival and introduce ourselves. I was slightly worried to see that it was heavily reinforced with metal grills and a substantial steel doors. It looked like a pub in the middle of a rough council estate but my fears about there being a high crime rate were dismissed when a local explained that it was also the emergency cyclone evacuation centre and built to endure the ravages of nature ….. Not thieves!

In case of a cyclone locals head to the bar and in true Aussie spirit they lock themselves in and get pissed!

The main settlement on West Island was built around the airport and consisted of one bar, one shop, one small motel with a restaurant and a number of houses and holiday units.

There was only one road which runs from North to South and it was called the ‘Sydney Highway’. It was no more than a track in places and although hire cars were available we were never going to be in a rush to get anywhere so we made use of the bikes available to guests at Cocos Castaways. Everybody we passed waved and said hello and nobody ever removed their keys from the ignition of their cars or mopeds. The settlement was situated in the middle of West Island so it was 7km to the beaches at the top of the Island and 7km to those on the South.

The Island received a weekly supplies flight from the mainland but fresh fruit and salad quickly ran out of stock. A carton of beer was 70 bucks and I paid 15 bucks for 6 tomatoes so it was going to be expensive to stock up!

Madam's hair was an issue again. She'd obviously bought a hairdryer, straighteners etc but where could she go? On day 1 she washing and drying it twice a day, day 2 was a quick wash and by day 3 it was a bad hair day hat!!!

We spent the first couple of days exploring West Island on the bikes, sunbathing and fishing. The ocean was alive with fish, turtles and crabs. In fact there were millions of crabs everywhere and not just on the beach. They were living in holes at the side of the road, in the settlement and just about everywhere you went.

At the top of the Island was an old jetty and a great spot for fishing. I’d brought my rod and I’d purchased what I thought I’d need before we’d left Perth …….but I was nowhere near prepared for this type of fishing.

Normally catching a fish involves a bite on your bait indicated by a twitch on the end of your rod and finally a strike to hook the fish. No…. Fishing here involved an explosion as your rod bent in half and your reel screamed as the fish stripped it of line as it took the bait. This happened so many times …… BIG fish bit through the line, hooks straightened in their jaws and on some occasions knots let me down. A classic tale of the ones that got away.

Fortunately the old boy in the bungalow next door came to my rescue with a handful of metal traces. The local residents here were lovely, friendly people and always ready to welcome you into their community with a smile and a chat. The number of tourists was low so it never felt like a holiday resort.

The beaches on the South of the Island were absolutely spectacular with crystal clear water and white, sandy, palm tree lined beaches. Even madam had risked her make up running and had done some snorkeling!

On Saturday we took the ferry across to a small uninhabited island called Direction Island. The only people there were the crew of a few yachts moored temporarily in the bay whilst on their way around the world. One couple from the UK had been sailing for 13 years and were two thirds of their way around! The beach was amazing and the stretch of sea between Direction Island and Home Island was called 'The Rip'.

As its name suggests this was basically a narrow channel of water but it was really deep, extremely fast moving and contained an abundance of fish. The swim into the rip meant swimming as fast as possible upstream just to remain stationary whilst sharks, huge wrass and other big fish swam beneath you. Apparently sharks need to have water constantly flowing through their gills so it is an ideal place for them to rest and remain stationary in the strong current. I was hoping that they were also asleep.

Now this was great until it came to the time you wanted to get out of the rip. It was virtually impossible and the ocean beckoned if you allowed it to take you and despite my frantic attempts to swim out of it, it was definitely taking me!

Eventually it dumped me in shallow water in the lagoon and only my pride was hurt as I walked the long distance back to the beach.

Meanwhile Madam had found a nice hammock and was getting stuck into her book oblivious to my perilous situation.

My second fishing trip at the old jetty and I had seriously upgraded my kit to include the metal trace and forget about worms on the hook - I'd kept the chicken and steak remains from BBQ's to use as bait!! There appeared to be a school of Giant Trevally fish living beneath the jetty and these things were enormous.... and very intelligent. They are called 'GT's' and they are one of the best game fish in the world. Several swam around directly underneath me - knowing that a person fishing was likely to land a fish and they simply waited patiently to take a bite out of it before I could get it onto land. They could also be hand fed but they were clever & knew as soon as something was thrown to them with a hook in it!

The only GT I was ever going to have that night would had the word 'and' between the two letters!

It was another day of straightened hooks and huge fish that got away but I managed to catch and land a shark. I even managed to take some selfies with him before he was returned to the ocean - unharmed ...... but extremely annoyed!!

The ferry between the Islands was great and we made a trip across to Home Island to see how the traditional Malay community lived and to read up on the history of the place at the museum which was fascinating.

On Wednesday 16th July we had our own little remembrance service for Dan H-T. Annie hadn't been able to attend the service in the UK so we donned our T shirts, took a lantern adorned with some lovely messages from us both and went to the best beach on the Island. We set the latern off into the southern breeze on what was undoubtedly the most beautiful sunset we'd seen. We said farewell to Darling Dan with beers & tears as it soared upwards - a poignant and beautiful farewell.

The rest of the holiday was spent quietly fishing (me) and reading (Madam) and one of the two RAAF lads stationed on the Island took me out fishing on his boat which was great fun apart from my rod snapped in half. I'd caught some decent fish but lost the big ones.....next time I will be better prepared with stronger kit.

The tiny airport was unmanned with no air traffic control or anything, in fact the control room was a man in an office with a hand held radio. On our last full day there was a lot of activity around the airport as a supplies aircraft arrived with fresh food and mail and parcels for the local residents who were out in force eagerly awaiting its arrival.

On our final day we packed and we could hear the airport tannoy from our room! Graham offered us a lift to the airport but we declined and simply crossed the road to check in.

This had been a great adventure to a quiet, basic and remote Island but it was also one of the most beautiful, pristine and natural area's in the Indian Ocean. Normally we notice backpackers and other Europeans touring Australia at our holiday destinations but unusually the only tourists here were Aussies.

There can't be too many places like this little gem left in the world. It had been described to us as the Australian Maldives without the tourism.

We had escaped work, traffic, crowds and even the digital world for nearly two weeks. We'd kept up to date with important news (Ashes test, Tour De France etc.) by watching TV but even that didn't work if there was a storm anywhere between here and the mainland. Our mobile phones hadn't worked here and although Wifi had been available it was hit and miss and (and expensive!) so we decided to step away from it all and remain incommunicado. No emails, mobiles, facebook ..... or even Daily Mail . . . Heaven.

---

Photos

Hello Cocos Keeling Island
Wet and windy!

Busy Road....
A Highway or a .....track!