9 September 2022 Friday – Cocos-Keeling Islands day 3 – then to Perth

Another early 6am start & we pack our bags ready for departure as we need to be out of our rooms by 8am. We leave our bags in the large reception area just after 7am then head into the Tropika Restaurant for a cooked breakfast that we eat outside overlooking the nearby coral fringing reef with the surf crashing down. We are the first for breakfast but joined soon after by most of our group, so we sit & chat for a long time & exchange some emails & phone numbers, they are a nice bunch of fellow travellers. Joe is at breakfast as well, he has recovered & will be flying back with us. We spot a white tern in a nearby tree with a large fish in its mouth, it must be feeding chicks as it sat for a long time with the fish before flying off.

Check-in at the airport was at 10.30am so we grabbed our bags & walked across the road to the airport terminal, very convenient. The good thing is that there is no problems with aircraft noise, there are only two scheduled flights a week. After check-in we walk out & sit under a nearby fig tree, there is no seating inside the small terminal, & why would you, when you can sit out in the warm tropical breeze.  The constant daily winter temperature is 28C & humid, we are glad that we aren’t here in summer. Again we chat with our fellow travellers until the plane lands, then the security check opens & we wait till near the end before going through that process before walking onto the plane. As the plane takes off on time at 1.20pm, there is a nice view over the islands & the lagoon, shame we do not have a window seat.

The flight to Christmas Island is 1 ½ hours & we disembark, walk outside the terminal, then back inside to wait to go through the security check again, what a crazy system. We see Mark & Sue, our guides from last week & have a chat with them again. Back through security then on our way to Perth. The flight departs Christmas Island on time & the flight to Perth takes 2 ½ hours & is smooth flying.  Unfortunately we haven’t got a window seat & we cannot enjoy the most beautiful sunset (a woman is sitting there & watching a movie).  We land on time at 8.45pm & after gathering our luggage we catch the hotel shuttle to our overnight accommodation at the Sanno Marracoonda. A long day as we lost 2 ½ hours with the time zone difference.