Trekkin

Day 6 – 15 July 2023 – Flam

Awake at 6.30 am & the surrounding snow topped mountains of the Sognefjord, the world’s longest fjord, tower into the sky. In some places the mountains are bare rock, others are covered by trees. On the shore clusters of houses are built anywhere that it is flat enough to build. Larger streams with big alluvial fans have small villages. There are waterfalls everywhere, big & small, flowing down the mountains from the patches of snow on top of the taller mountains, it is such a beautiful sight. We shower & head up for breakfast.  From our table we watch the passing sides of the fjord closing in as we sail along the Aurlandsfjord to the small town of Flam at the head of the fjord. It is a little while before our tour begins so we head off for a short walk around town, it is set up for tourists with the main form of transport the railway. Another cruise ship comes into port, the “Silver Dawn”, it is about half the size of the one we are on.

We walk back to the ship to register for our tour then walk the short distance along the wharf to the Flam Railway Station & board the Flamsbana. This is an old electric train that takes us up the 20 km track to Myrdal through 20 tunnels that total 6km of the track with a gain in altitude of 866 metres. The scenery is breathtaking with sheer mountains, cliffs & waterfalls, with the odd small farm scattered along the way. The wheels screech loudly on the sharp bends. It takes around an hour for the train to cover the 20 km. Around 4 km from Myrdal is Kjosfossen Station, the train platform is right next to a raging waterfall, with the river racing under the platform & track. All of a sudden we hear a woman’s voice singing loudly above the waterfall & look up to see a woman dressed in a red dress with long flowing blonde hair flitting & dancing around the ruins of a building, uphill & next to the waterfall. She is the Hultra, a mythical woman that lured men away into the forest & never to be seen again. I survived, only just.

At Myrdal we changed trains onto the express train to Bergen, however, we stopped at the large town of Voss & exited the train for a walk around the centre of Voss & lunch. The Stone church in the middle of town was very impressive, with a few older buildings adding good character to the town centre. We catch a tour bus at Voss to take us back to Flam & our ship. The scenery is beautiful & we stop at Tvindefossen, a stunning waterfall near the road. We walk up to the base of the falls & enjoy the view & the sound of the falls as they crash down the cliff face & form a stream.

The ship departs from Flam at 6.30pm while we are having dinner, from our table we enjoy the amazing scenery as we sail out of the fjord. The day started out mild & overcast but after lunch it started to rain.  It didn’t dampen an amazing day.

Day 5 -14 July 2023 –  Eidfjord

Up at 5am, shower & then on deck at the bow of the ship to watch the ship sail under the Hardanger Fjord bridge, the ship only has a clearance of 2 metres from the bridge. In Copenhagen the crew lowered a masthead light so that the ship could fit under. The bridge is 4,528 feet long with the road disappearing straight into tunnels on either end of the bridge. It is the longest suspension bridge in Norway & third longest in the world. The scenery is absolutely amazing with the mountains on either side of the fjord getting higher & closer. There are lots of waterfalls cascading downs & lots of pockets of snow on the peaks, stunningly beautiful, the photos don’t even come close to doing it justice.

We arrive at Eidfjord, a small town of around 1,000 people at the end of the fjord & there is a Viking cruise ship already anchored, with the lifeboats transporting passengers to another small wharf. The tiny wharf seems hardly big enough to tie up to but the captain & crew do an amazing job in nudging this huge ship in & gently bringing it alongside at around 8am. We scurry down from breakfast & head off to the excursion centre as we are on the first land excursion of the day starting at 8.30am. There is a small fleet of buses waiting for us & our guide Gianna from Italy with Christof the bus driver whisk us away.

We follow the Eio River & up past the freshwater lake Eidfjordvatnet, a beautiful body of water famous for its trout fishing.  The Natural History Museum, the Norsk Natursenter, is 3 floors of very interesting exhibitions featuring the wildlife of the Hardanger National Park. The feature was an amazingly impressive very widescreen video of the park, its animals, rivers & waterfalls. There were lots of gasps of wonder from the audience. The gift shop across the road is very interesting because it has a grassed roof & there are 3 goats on the roof keeping the grass down. Lots of people stop to photo the goats on the roof, something we had not seen previously. The bus keeps winding its way up the valley with spectacular mountain scenery on either side & lots of wooden houses scattered around. Some of the houses have turf with grass growing on the roof to provide insulation from the cold.

The spectacular Voringfossen, a magnificent waterfall, is our next stop that sits below the old Fossli Hotel, a favourite holiday spot for the composer Edvard Greig. The falls are absolutely thundering with fine water spray from the falls filling the air, it is a real spectacle for the senses. The sturdy viewing platforms have lots of room & there are paths to lots of other vantage points. We don’t have enough time to wander too far & all too soon we are back on the bus. One person is missing & we wait for a while then leave her. There are lots of other buses from the ship & one of them will take her back.

Our next stop is the Sysenvatnet dam, a water reservoir for one of the big hydro-electric power stations that is sited 700 metres underground in the next valley over. The dam wall is made entirely from rock & is most impressive at nearly a kilometre long. The trip back down to Eidfjord is just as beautiful, the scattered snow drifts on the mountains are really glowing in the sunlight.

Eidfjord is a pretty small town & we go for a short walk, had a look at one of the old impellors from the hydro power station that had a blade broken from it, it is really large. The walk along the river is pleasant & we sit for a while before walking on, one crew woman from the ship is having a swim in the river, it must be so cold coming off the icemelt. The cruise ship really towers over Eidfjord, it is such a big ship. We stay on deck & watch the ship depart & travel under the Hardanger Bridge again before having dinner. The scenery is stunning with no wind, warm sun & a few lingering clouds.

There are lots of small fishing boats & we watch the sun setting over the ocean at 10.50pm, it is really beautiful. Another great day.

Day 3 -12 July 2023 – Copenhagen to Holland America “Nieuw Statendam”

This morning it is already daylight when I wake at 3am, it is lightly raining. After a 7am shower the thunder starts & the rain gets heavy, great I think, we wanted to go for a nice walk before we join the ship. I received an email that our luggage is in Copenhagen & will be delivered. As we are having breakfast I get a phone call from the delivery company, they will take our luggage direct to the ship, along with all the rest of the airline luggage for other passengers with similar issues to us. We are now living in our travel worn clothes & the white T-shirt that we received in our small emergency package from Air France.

Breakfast at the Airport Hotel is a Danish Smorgasbord, the Danish pastries are very nice, as are all the Danish cheeses & other Danish treats. We finish with some nice fresh fruit, all very tasty. There are lots of other people at breakfast who are also joining the cruise ship, mostly Americans judging by their accents. A few are wearing the same white T-shirts.

I read a few emails, respond & delete messages plus post our blog with photos before wandering downstairs & checking out. We were going to walk, bus, train, walk to the cruise ship, however, it is raining heavily. There is a taxi stand in front of the hotel & as we get there a taxi pulls up & we get in, the taxi is a new E class Mercedes, very nice. The drive to the cruise ship terminal in the rain is pleasant & the taxi owner, a very friendly Pakistani man living in Denmark for the past 20 years gives us a great commentary while pointing out all the landmarks & features of the city. He explains that a lot of the new buildings & apartments have been built on land only recently reclaimed from the sea & they are very expensive apartments.

There are 3 cruise ships in port & we only have a very short dash in the rain into the terminal. Check in is relatively quick and we are on the ship at around 1pm. Our stateroom, as they call cabins, is quite small with a balcony, more than enough for the two of us.  We enjoy the view from our balcony across to Sweden for a little while. We go for a wander around the ship, the layout is the same as the other Holland America ship we have travelled on, the Westerdam. We stop on deck 9 for lunch & have a selection from the vast array of food on offer, another delicious smorgasbord. After lunch we explore the ship a little more, we sat at the Observation Deck for a while. On return to our room, unfortunately we find NO LUGGAGE, bugger. We watch a movie/snooze a bit before dinner, still trying to catch up with the jetlag.

Not long after we return from dinner there is a knock on the door & Tereza’s bag has arrived, a sigh of relief. We go up to the Observation Deck to watch as the ship exited out of the sound between Denmark & Sweden, there are lots of ships & small boats plying the water, it is busy. Back into our state room, we wait for a while & after my bag does not show I went to the service desk to see if they could help. I was one of many in the same situation with no luggage. At the service desk they gave him a bag with a tooth brush, small tube of tooth paste & a small stick of deodorant (after all they don’t want him to stink too much).  They also offered free laundry, I wonder if he is supposed to walk around naked while they wash the only clothes that he has on. The shop on board is useless, no socks or undies.  We found a pair socks, skivvies & a warm top amongst my clothes that fit him. It is still light when we go to bed around 11pm.

Day 2 -11 July 2023  Paris to Copenhagen

The Air France lady was very helpful & we were booked on the next flight to Copenhagen with around 1.5 hours of wait in the terminal plus 11 Euro voucher each for light breakfast (coffee, croissants. yogurt & fruit salad). The plane was small, modern & comfortable with a young woman pilot. The scenery over Paris & France was beautiful as we headed north passing over Belgium & Holland coastlines, with an amazing amount of wind turbines, before the cloud covered the view.

Flying in to Copenhagen we saw the Oresund bridge connecting Malmo in Sweden with Copenhagen in Denmark that disappears under the ocean to allow shipping to pass easily, a masterpiece of engineering.

The landing in Copenhagen was uneventful with another very long walk through the terminal to the baggage claim, a good thing there are some long travelators to assist. No bags for us as we sat & waited. The missing bags person was very helpful & our bags were still in Paris – damn. They will be flown up on one of the next three planes from Paris today. We had some delicious Danish hotdogs for lunch with all the trimmings & Danish beer.

We had a very pleasant 15 minute walk in the warm sunshine to our hotel, booked in then a shower & a couple of hours of sleep after our long travels. Tereza & I had a long walk afterwards exploring the neighbourhood before settling into dinner at the “Le Perr” Café next to the hotel, a very nice meal. The prices of food seem expensive in Denmark & they use the Danish Krone for currency, not the Euro. It is still daylight at 10pm of a night.

Day 1 -10 July 2023 Canberra to Paris

Alarm at 5.30am for an early breakfast. Favourite Son-in law picked us up & we were away at 7am into Civic to catch the bus to Sydney.  Very convenient dropping us at the door to the international departures. We prefer bus to Sydney, the total travel time is similar, but the bus is so much more comfortable, relaxing & cheaper. Check in & bags is all self-serve & we were into Passports & through security very quickly, our bags checked through Air France all the way to Copenhagen. Our first leg is codeshare on Qantas to Singapore.  Our first flight on the big double decker monster Dreamliner plane. The seats are comfortable & the service good.  The flight took 8.5 hours, we both watched some movies. In Singapore we walked a very long way & fast through the terminal to  change to an Air France plane, a smaller & older aircraft with not so comfortable seats. Our Capitan, Obi One Kenobi announced that we were departing for Singapore later than scheduled & 13.5 hours later we landed late in Paris at 6.45am.  We didn’t get much sleep. Again a very long & fast walk through the terminal & a long wait at Passport check meant we missed our plane to Copenhagen by 5 minutes.

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.

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.

7 September 2022 Wednesday – Cocos-Keeling Islands day 1

Up at 6am to be ready to depart by bus before 7am as we have a ferry that waits for no-one to catch. There are dark clouds across the lagoon as we wait for the ferry & there is rain falling in the distance. The inter-island ferry is a nice new catamaran that was built by Incat in Tasmania & looks great riding smoothly over the lagoon as it comes toward us. The shores of the lagoon are lined with sand with coconut palms standing tall along the shoreline, the vision of a real tropical paradise.

The ferry arrives & a load of children disembark heading to high school on the West Island. Home Island only has schooling to Year 6 so the children have to travel between islands twice a day. We walk up the stairs to the top deck and enjoy the views for a while until the rain reaches us & we scurry downstairs. After the rain clears we venture back upstairs for a while only to have more rain send us downstairs again. We watch with interest as we near the Home Island wharf & slot into a berth behind a large cargo barge & a large government boat named the “Robert J Hawke” after a former Prime Minister. The trip by the catamaran ferry takes less than half an hour.

We walk to the nearby picnic tables overlooking the lagoon & have breakfast of croissant, smoked salmon, cheeses & salads, all delicious & a great way to start the day. In the large tree above our heads is a small flock of tiny white terns, they are such cute little birds. We walk down the orderly streets of Home Island settlement & are taken by the ordered neatness of this small village. Some buildings have colourful murals on their walls & one noticeable difference is that there is no visible rubbish laying around, whereas on Christmas Island a lot of the houses & yards are notable for their untidiness & rubbish lying around. The community mosque is neat with a nice golden minaret on the roof & then we walk along a long treed avenue to Oceania House, former home of the Clunies-Ross family, the former owners of this group of islands.

The house is a large two story building made from white glazed bricks imported from Glasgow, Scotland & we are fortunate enough to be shown around the interior of the house. The house is being restored & will open soon for guests to enjoy. The rooms are all large with high ceilings, the bedrooms are all upstairs with a beautiful curved wooden staircase leading up. The house is decorated in period furniture, with some original Clunies-Ross pieces scattered around. I like the longcase grandfather clock the most. The house itself needs a little more repair & tidying, but looks structurally sound. It is a shame the gardens have been let go, apparently they looked very good. The new owner bought the place unseen & is turning it into tourist accommodation.

We walk back down the avenue & enjoy the views over the lagoon, it is very pretty. Our next stop is the Pulu Cocos Museum, a small museum that tells the story of Cocos Island with an interesting array of artefacts. In one corner is a collection of wooden puppets that are part of the culture of the Malay Cocos population on Home Island. A collection of five heads of the Clunies-Ross male hierarchy that was originally in Oceania House are on display. A machine used to make local currency from plastic using injection moulding by Clunies-Ross to pay wages that could be spent in the local store was also displayed. There are two large wooden sailing boats made from teak on display that were made by George Clunies-Ross & Cocos Malay craftsmen, they both have nice lines & look very seaworthy.

We pass one of the old wells that was used to extract water from the underground freshwater sitting on top of the saltwater.  Water is now extracted using bores, pumps & then filtration. In a large covered shed nearby is a large collection of sailing boats, originally designed & built to transport coconuts from the surrounding islands they are now sailed for pleasure & most are in very good condition.

There are other buildings that are the remains of the old workshops used for the coconut & copra trade for processing of the coconuts & the whole series of support workshops such as boatbuilding, sailmaking & general carpentry. On the waterfront is the remains of a dual slipway & the related winches & workshops, all in a poor state of repair. Of interest was the trolley that was at water level used to transfer boats from one slipway to another without putting the boat into the water. The stainless steel pins used for the wheel bearings are the only parts that are still shiny & not rusted.

The war memorial is sobering & a reminder of the three Cocos Islanders killed by Japanese bombing during WWII. Nearby are two old wooden boats laying out in the weather & on display, one of them is an old loading barge & the other is a motorised launch, both past being of any use. Near them are four anchors & an old muzzle loading cannon that must have been on display at one stage, now in a state of apparent abandonment. There are some white terns in the tree above & I take a few photos of them, one white tern fluttering above David in an apparent display of defence.

We are back on the ferry across to West Island & Kylie takes us down to The Barge, an art centre that has used an old restored island ferry as the art display area with an attached coffee shop. Some of the artwork uses plastic & other refuse that is washed up on the island’s shores. We admire the artwork then move outside to enjoy the views with the outlying reef framed through the coconut palms. There are lots of hermit crabs of all sizes walking around underfoot on the sand.

The next part of our day we head off to the Eastern tip of West Island to the canoe adventure site where we have a salad lunch under the shelter of a rudimentary shed as a shower of rain passes through. After lunch we grab a motorised canoe with outriggers for a boat trip in the lagoon, the canoes all have a small 2hp outboard attached on the stern & a big bailing bucket in the bottom. Just next to us there is a lot of people out kite sailing & having a great time in the strong winds. We get in & venture off in the canoes to the nearest island across the lagoon, it is a little tricky going through the gap in the rocks to the island & a few strand their canoes on the rocks, we sail through with no problems. We anchor the canoes, take off our lifejackets & go for a swim, most of us ride the current around to the other side of the island then walk back through the centre of the small island past an old battered shack that had been used by someone to live in.

We then motor across the lagoon to the next small island, where we land has a huge number of hermit crabs of all sizes feeding on some lettuce leaves that someone had left there previously. We are amazed to see so many hermit crabs in one place. Our tour leader Ash drew 3 circles & we were asked to choose a random hermit crab & put it in the middle, we all had to get out of the circle & see whose crab will win the race, mine came in 4^th. Next we walk into the centre of the island where blue tailed skinks from Christmas Island Lizard Research Centre captive breeding program have been released. We take part in an ad-hoc study counting the number of lizards we see sunning on a tree, others in our group are doing the same on their allocated trees. We also are to take note of how many lizards have lost their tails & how big the lizards are. We count five blue tailed skinks sunning themselves on our tree, all with tails & all of adult size.

Back off across the lagoon surging down waves & splashing through the backs of waves, it is a fair distance back across to the site we departed from on West Island but we cruise along & enjoy the scenery & the ride. We are wet when we get back & pull the canoes up onto the beach, then take off our spray jackets & life jackets & climb back into the minibus for the ride back to our motel. A hot shower was in order to warm up & wash the salt out of our hair & off us, plus rinse the salt off our clothes. The old fishing line tied across the porch out the back of our room was used to hang up our wet clothes & swimmers to dry.

Dinner tonight is next door at the Tropika Restaurant & is a smorgasbord that starts at 6.00pm. We get there right on time & help ourselves to a selection of delicious dishes, I go back for a small selection of seconds then line up & have a bit of dessert. Our group has a large table outside looking out at the reef & the breaking waves, we do a lot of talking then head off for a well-earned sleep, we are exhausted. Another great day.

6 September 2022 Tuesday – Christmas Island day 8 to Cocos-Keeling Islands

This morning we are treated to a beautiful rainbow as a shower of rain went through as we ate a cooked breakfast at 7.30am of bacon & eggs, then back to our room to pack our bags. It is a lot more difficult fitting everything in as we are now wearing our summer clothes & all of our winter clothes have to be packed in the bag, it is a tight squeeze. We wheel our bags around to the back enclosed verandah & then set off in one of the cars to explore the settlement.

Our destination this morning is Tai Jin House again, this building is in good condition compared to the rest of the abodes on Christmas Island. This time the museum upstairs is open & we spend some time reading about the history of Christmas Island from its beginnings & viewing some of the artefacts collected over the years. It is all very interesting & sad how mainly Malaysian & Chinese labourers were treated, like slaves by their bosses.  We finish by watching a video of both the island & the mining operations. This is pertinent as a ship has just come into port this morning & has begun loading phosphate with clouds of red phosphate dust billowing from the ship as the phosphate is loaded.

We bundle into the car again as Pam wants to go to the Post Office so we stop there & squeeze into the tiny store packed with goods. We end up not buying anything so we drive the short distance to the nearby Visitor Centre & spend a bit of time browsing through the touristy goods on display & we all end up buying a few small things. Nearby is the local Christmas Island Bakery so we decide to stop there for lunch. To our surprise it is a bakery unlike any we have been to before, no pastries, no cakes, no pies, no sausage rolls. Only a couple of loaves of bread. They do have cold drinks & they do make food, such as a variety of burgers & chips plus toasted sandwiches. There are some chicken wings & one other item of hot food in the heated display (that is cold). I have a burger with chips & Tereza some chicken wings, we are both disappointed.

We leave the others to walk back to the Sunset Lodge, it is not that far, then Tereza & I drive up to Poon San to visit the hardware store that sells all sorts of things, not just hardware, it certainly is different to any hardware store we have seen before. Things like shoes, socks, undies, thongs, tourist soaps, candles, essential oils, etc. Back then to the Golden Bosun in time for our departure to the airport, there is no rush as the woman at the hardware store also works at security at the airport & she told us the plane is delayed an hour leaving Perth. There are people on the island working in 2 or 3 jobs because there is a labour shortage, but even if they could fill the positions there is no accommodations for workers.

All our luggage is bundled into the cars & bus, with Tereza & I travelling with Lisa, our tour leader. We arrive at the airport in plenty of time & check our luggage in & collect our boarding passes. We sit in the airport lounge for around an hour waiting for security to open, which it does just after the incoming plane from Perth lands. We then line up & pass through security with no problem, we see Kerrie from the hardware store behind the x-ray machine scanning the baggage as it passes through. Only 20 of us lucky people can travel to Cocos-Keeling as that is all that they can accommodate, the others return to Perth & home.

The flight to Cocos-Keeling Island is not full & the plane takes around 90 minutes to get there. The landing is a little bumpy as it is fairly windy on the island & the pilot stamps on the brakes as the runway is not that long. While in the plane Tereza manages to take a photo of “Christmas Island Airport” the sign that we were forbidden from photographing on our arrival. We taxi to the end of the runway then turn & taxi most of the way back up to the terminal.

 Our luggage is thankfully on the first trolley so I collect our bags & we make our way out past the Federal Police, handing him our immigration cards. We are informed that there are very few vehicles on the road & the speed limit is 30km/hr.  The islands are not big & everything is walking distance. Kylie, our tour leader on Cocos-Keeling Island is waiting for us with a sign outside & she waits for us all to gather before leading us on a one minute walk across the road from the airport terminal building to our accommodation. One member of our group has not had her luggage delivered on the trolley & has complained to the baggage handlers. Kylie takes us to our hotel then goes back to speak to the manager, however, to no avail, her luggage remains on the plane & is taken to Perth. I suppose that’s not too bad, on Christmas Island 7 people in our tour group their luggage hasn’t turned up.  Virgin Airlines I think should lift their game.  On these islands there are very few shops or I should say nowhere to buy necessary clothing.

We drop our bags in the room then gather out the front & Kylie takes us back over to the airport for dinner. The pizza place called Saltys Pizza is our dinner venue & after we all get drinks piping hot pizza is delivered to our tables, pizza of all different varieties & it is delicious. We all eat more than we should & there is some left over. We walk slowly back to our rooms with very full bellies. Once again we scored a nice room with a million dollar ocean view, just like on Christmas Island, so far we have been lucky with our luggage & accommodations. Another great day.

5 September 2022 Monday – Christmas Island day 7

Mark & Sue are our guides this morning for a walk into Hosnies Springs. The turn-off is along the Dolly Beach Road & the track into Hosnies Springs is not signposted at all, you just have to know where it is. This track is a bit overgrown & covered in red crabs so we have to have some crab sweepers walking in front of the cars clearing the red crabs from the track. There is some muddy sections & a few steeper sections & Doug, our driver, manages to navigate through it all, with branches scraping the side & roof of the car all of the time. Glad it is not my car.

The walk into Hosnies Springs is only meant to be 800 metres, but it seems a lot longer, it is a lot of hard work clambering down the weathered sharp limestone & winding through the pandanus. There are lots of red crabs along the way & at one spot I see a red crab being devoured by a Robber Crab, the first time I have seen this. We walk past a freshwater tufa flow, where the calcium in the water solidifies as it trickles through. Near the end of the tufa flow a branch has been covered with limestone, then the log has rotted away, nature is amazing.

Hosnies Springs as a spring is underwhelming, water bubbles slowly out of the muddy ground, enough to support a colony of two species of freshwater mangrove. However, this is a Ramsar listed wetland of international significance because of the freshwater mangroves at this height above sea level & so far inland. These mangroves are really tall & straight, at least 15 to 20 metres in height, totally unlike coastal mangrove. There is a variety of young mangroves growing in the understory, with a lot of seedpods with their ends buried in the mud & sprouting new leaves for the next generation of freshwater mangroves. There are lots of blue crabs here with the abundant freshwater, as well as the ever present robber crabs in both orange & blue flavours. There are lots of different fungi in this part of the damp & dark forest. The walk out is tougher, finding our way as the track markings of pink ribbons tied to a branch are not that clear & it is a little overgrown & the climb up over the limestone is more of a challenge.

On the drive out David, Sonia & I are the crab clearers & we walk the full distance out to the Dolly Beach Road, clearing lots of red crabs & the occasional robber crab off the track. We climb back into the car & back into the Settlement & Flying Fish Cove for lunch. To our great surprise we are the first group there with Linda & Graham waiting patiently for us with lunch. There are some nice seats & we enjoy the views over the cove & also watch the Border Force ship being loaded with provisions by barge. Tereza is with another group walking into Dolly Beach & Lisa, our organiser, starts to get worried because they are so late getting back so she drives off to try & find them in case they have run into problems. After a while Lisa returns & says that they will be getting back shortly. It is a relief to see Tereza sitting at the back of the bus when it pulls back in.

After lunch I decide that I would like to go & see Dolly Beach as well & borrow one of the small Toyota RAV4s & take 3 other women in the group that also went on the Hosnies Springs walk & wanted to see Dolly Beach. The road in is not too bad with the two steep sections dry bitumen. There are a lot of deep potholes with a bit of water in them so I take it very slowly & there are only a few places where overhanging palm fronds scrape the car.

Dolly Beach walk is very easy after our walk to Hosnies Springs with a plastic mesh boardwalk most of the way through the lush forest. In sections we walk along dry pandanus leaves that have fallen, also some water puddles where we just have to suck it up & walk through, a tester for our water proof shoes. There are lots & lots of red crabs & robber crabs out after the recent rain & we take a lot of time stopping & taking photos. There are also a few birds that we stop & try to see & identify. It takes us over an hour to get to the stairs down to Dolly Beach, they are moist & slippery & we hold on, the track is also wet & slippery & one of the women slips & falls, luckily with no injury.

On the beach there is a younger couple breaking open coconuts & there is a lot of robber crabs around looking for a free feed. I walk the length of the beach & there is a huge pile of rope washed up, amazing that it missed all the cliffs & rocks & landed on this beach. There is lots of plastic rubbish everywhere on the beach.  All along the beach are robber crabs, with one chewing on a fresh coconut husk. Around the coconut stake I count 19 robber crabs, with a few fighting each other for position & food.

On the way back out we waste no time & walk at a good pace as it is starting to get late, reaching the car park within 30 minutes of leaving Dolly Beach. There are bags of plastic rubbish that have been collected off the beach piled under the welcome sign, Tereza’s group contributed a few of those bags. The drive back out is uneventful & we leave a group of 3 younger people at the carpark to follow us out. We get back to Sunset Lodge around 5pm & time for a shower to freshen up before dinner. Tereza started to worry about us, she wasn’t impressed that I went out there without a guide.  They worried about Tereza’s group coming in late during the day with a guide, she wasn’t happy as it was getting dark & what if something happened to the car etc., it was all good we all got back in time for dinner & happy that we didn’t miss out on seeing Dolly Beach.

Dinner tonight is at the Rumah Tinggi Tavern & is set in a spectacular garden location with coconut palms scattered among the mown lawns, it is a beautiful spot. The tables are set up along the verandah & we pick a spot looking out to the sea, also out of the rain as when the showers come over the other side gets a little bit of rain on their backs. The evening starts with a talk by Lisa & she puts up some of the challenge photos, the two I took of Sonia & Annette staggering out of the surf I named Blue Breasted Common Boobies & Sue under a pandanus, the Blue Rumped Crawling Pandanus Warbler, when she dived under the Pandanus looking for the wedge tailed shearwater. These photos are both highlights & everyone had a chuckle. Lisa thanks all of her guides plus her mum & uncle that helped with the food. Next Mark gives a funny talk on teddy bears & how they lost their arms, everyone is laughing. Sue is next & provides some quotable quotes from some of our fellow travellers, also very funny. Dinner was superb, entrée was stuffed mushrooms with a hummus pastry, main meal was a mix between rack of lamb & chicken, again delicious. The dessert was superb, 3 parts, a cheesecake slice, a chocolate slice & a dab of ice cream, we thought that we were so full but amazingly we had room for the yummy deserts . Everyone seemed to enjoy the function & the food. The winter weather is mainly hazy, some drizzling rain & 26C, humid, glad we aren’t here in summer.  Another great day.