Cocos Keeling Update
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 24 Sep 2013 07:40
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The anchorage here at Cocos Keeling is off Direction
Island, an uninhabited half-moon island covered in coconut palms and lapped
by a lagoon of brilliant turquoise coloured water. The colour is equal or better
anything we've seen and is right up there with Bora Bora in the Pacific and
the Tobago Cays in the Caribbean. When the sun is out it's incredibly
beautiful. However, to send this we will have to go to Home
Island which has a small Malay population of a few hundred people, and Internet
access. Although Australian, it's a Malay village, with Malay customs and
culture (including dress), and is mostly self governing. They are all
descendants from the workers brought from Malaysia to work on the coconut
plantation established here. Pictures in a later entry, but transport
is by golf cart or quad bike. Even the police car, with the police emblem,
is a big golf cart! Home Island is about half an hour away by
dinghy, but unfortunately upwind most of the way. So as it's been blowing
20-30kts all the time we've been here, the trip is into the wind and
waves and on our first trip across we only kept dry by both sitting
back and getting the dinghy's bow right up. In the old dinghy we would have been
completely swamped and the trip would have been impossible. The 30 minute
return trip across the fantastic colours of the lagoon with the wind
behind really was magical. It was worth coming here just for that! We went
across on Saturday, but unfortunately Internet access is only available during
week days, so we need to make a second visit to send this and check up on the
weather forecasts for the next passage.
The other inhabited island, West Island, is further
away (about 5 miles) and has a small population of just over
100 Australians. It's where the airport is (they have 2 flights to Perth
each week), the main police station (which also carries
out Immigration and Customs duties), a tourist office (as well as the
lagoon and beaches, the diving is supposed to be spectacular) and a
few small hotels for visitors.
Have made the trip to Home Island and have connected to the
internet, but unfortunately the upload speed is so slow it's impossible to send
pictures. So just text for a while longer. |