8 September 2022 Thursday – Cocos-Keeling Islands day 2

Another 6am wake-up for the 7am bus to catch the inter-island ferry again. Along the road we spot some white-chested waterhens then some green jungle fowl, some of our group are excited as they are rare birds.  We are all on time & there are a lot of people lined up for the ferry. It looks like it is going to be a good day, there is hardly any wind & the sky looks to be clearing. The ferry turns up on time & disgorges its load of schoolkids, then we all board. Tereza & I head upstairs, however, all the seating is gone so we head back down & chat with one of our fellow travellers on the back deck. The ride across the lagoon to Home Island is quick & the water is so clear it is easy to see the bottom of the lagoon. Only a few school children get off at Home Island & get onto a cute small electric bus to take them to school. The rest of us stay on for the trip to Direction Island. We sail way back out into the middle of the lagoon to pick up the navigation leads to take us through the channel to Direction Island. We sail in a very large circle travelling a distance of around 10 kilometres to get to the island that is only about two kilometres away in a straight line. The water is shallow & there are lots of coral bommies around.

This jetty on Direction Island is only very short & small, though again a new concrete model. We walk to the nearby picnic shelter, carrying eskies, chairs & some snorkelling gear, then Kylie starts to set up for breakfast with a few of us helping. We all have a nice breakfast before Tereza & I head off for a walk along the Heritage Trail down to the western tip of the island. Our first stop is the SS Emden Rotunda with story boards telling of the circumstances of the battle between the SS Emden & HMAS Sydney. We only get through two story boards before the horde of mosquitos drive us out.

The trail starts out mown & well-kept, giving us the illusion it was like this the whole way, sadly, the further we walked the more unkempt the Heritage Trail became, overgrown with weeds & covered with palm fronds & fallen coconuts. We had to watch carefully where we walked. The Heritage Walk storyboards were interesting & told the tale of when Direction Island was an important communications link between Australia & the rest of the world. You can still see the undersea cable locations with the old cable laying in the sea. There are blocks of concrete & bricks where the old buildings were bulldozed into the sea after they were all deemed obsolete with the change in modern communications.

When we reached the western tip of the island the piles of plastic rubbish amongst the coral rubble & around the bases of the coconut palms became overwhelming, there is so much rubbish washed up & pushed ashore. The walk is very hot & humid & by the time we get back to the picnic shelter we are sweaty & hot.  The water looked so good we decide to have a swim.

I grab a snorkel & some fins then head to the jetty to look at the fish that always hang around jetty pylons. There are three large batfish hanging around the end of the jetty plus a lot of small very pretty blue coloured fish. I then swim out into the lagoon towards some small coral bommies, as I swim over a palm frond there is a small school of nice largish fish hiding in the shadows of the fronds. A large school of trevally then swim around me as they make their way across the sandy bottom, there must be at least 100 fish in the school.

The small isolated coral bommies all have an array of amazingly coloured fish swimming around & sheltering with the occasional large very colourful trigger fish. A large trevally swims past & swims around the bommie inspecting it for a feed. Tereza is swimming inshore & I swim in to let her know where I am then I head back out for some more exploring. More beautiful fish as I move from coral to coral, at one spot there is a mass of branch coral with hordes of small pale blue & dark blue fish. Another site has a few blue lipped giant clams amongst the coral, the blue colour of these is stunning.

Starting to get a little tired I head back to find Tereza & then get out & dry off.  I spread my wet gear on a convenient coconut palm that has a leaning trunk. Kylie & some of the others in our group prepare a delicious lunch with fresh salad, smoked salmon & bread rolls. While we are eating lunch a Buff-banded Rail walks around feeding on the nearby grass. This bird is endemic to Cocos-Keeling Island & there is not that many of them. Some of our birding group have been chasing around the island trying to see it, here it is just walking next to us, absolutely amazing.

During lunch I notice one of our group stumble & fall as he is climbing the bank off the beach, very quickly his wife is by his side (a former nurse) & another of our group, also a former nurse. Joe is a diabetic & has already had a couple of stumbles during the time we have been together. His wife seems to think his sugar levels are not good so she gives him a can of lemonade to drink. Kylie assesses the problem then goes to the emergency phone to summon the Police Rescue & a nurse. Before too long we see a speeding boat in the distance, Joe has recovered enough to walk & he is escorted to the wharf & sits on a chair to await the Police boat. The nurse quickly assesses him & they talk him onboard the Police boat & off to the clinic. (His wife tells us later that the doctor checked Joe over at the clinic & he did have low sugar levels, high insulin levels, but was also dehydrated)

The wet swimming gear dries surprisingly quickly as it bakes in the sun. All too soon the ferry appears in the distance to collect us so we pack all the chairs, swim gear, drinks & food then cart it all out to the jetty for loading onto the ferry. Tereza & I sit inside for the ferry ride back across the lagoon in the air conditioned cabin & on comfortable seats, as it is hot outside in the sun. At Home Island one person gets off & Kylie collects some food from one of the Cocos Malay women for dinner tonight. The trip across to West Island is very smooth & quick, with a mass of school children waiting to board the ferry to return back home after school. The bus is hot when we get back inside & the drive back to the hotel barely has time for the air conditioner to cool the bus a bit.

Some of our fellow travellers decide to go golfing to experience the unique golf course.  You start on one side of the airport & play across the airstrip, walking across the runway over to the other side.

The shower is good again, washing the salt off & we have a little time to prepare ourselves for dinner. Tonight dinner is with Kylie & Ash at their house looking out over the ocean, it is a lovely spot. We arrive a little early & chat for a little before we are invited in to share the magnificent array of food that Ash & Kylie have prepared. There is some delicious fish, a Malaysian curry, rice, baked vegetables, garlic bread, potato bake & parathas (to slop up the curry). We are all full, then dessert is offered, we are so full but we couldn’t refuse the delicious yummy dessert.  Kylie & Ash are lovely people & wonderful hosts. We are the last to leave as we assist clearing the tables & stacking the chairs. The romantic walk home is beautiful with the nearly full moon shining down on us & the crash of the ocean waves on the nearby reef. Another great day.