NORDLYS - Cocos Islands

Cocos Islands

NORDLYS

David and Annette Ridout

Fri 1 Jun 2007 05:36

Cocos Islands

12:06S 96:53E

Direction Island, Cocos Keeling

1st June 2007

During flying training I developed the habit of entering in the back of my log book any new airfield, at that stage they often were grass strips, that I landed at. As time went on these changed from Staveton, Swaffam, Littlehampton to such as Karachi, Rangoon, Hong Kong. Thirty years later the list was large and also included such as Helsinki, Stockholm, Templehof and Beijing. The one thing a pilot never sees is the puff of rubber smoke given out by tyres as they go from still to 120 knots in an instant however smooth the landing. Thirty years of service but nothing more than a lot of rubber marks created. I say this because many years ago my eldest son said to me, 'I could never do your job Daddy because you create nothing'. Now while I understood his attitude, he is now an architect, this never bothered me perhaps because I am not an artistic type. What you may ask has all this to do with life anchored off Direction Island part of the Cocos Atoll. Well atoll life for yachtsmen is totally hedonistic. White sand, turquoise waters, lots of waterborn wild life to be viewed through a face mask and absolutely nothing created other than a lot of knowledge gained from reading. At our age it is doubtful how much of this sticks in the 'little grey cells' inside our skulls Combine this with some very squally winds, lots of rain and high humidity and millions of mosquitoes ashore and the result is that Annette and I are beginning to think that we have reached the end of our atoll visiting lives. We still have one more to go and despite the above are looking forward greatly to it. Salomon atoll, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory is uninhabited and comes very highly recommended. It is we understand a jewel of its kind and should make a grand finale for us. It is still 1500 nautical miles of Indian Ocean away.

Cocos Atoll has a colouful history that any reader can look up by the simple expedient of clicking on www.wikipedia.com but the modern result is that on Home Island there live about 600 Muslim Malays and on West Island 120 mainly Australian whites. The two communities interact quite happily and school teachers, administrators et al cross by ferry each morning the four miles to Home Island while many workers go the other way. Home Island is muslim and the local ladies wear long dresses with sleeves and always have head scarves. The men are not seen in shorts. Many on Home Island only speak rudimentary English. Both islands are well supplied by the Australian Government with equipment and services. I am glad I am not an Australian tax payer, a lot of my money would be going into this island that produces almost nothing. No crops, no minerals and minimal tourism. Home Island is .95 square kilometre. There are many small quadbike type vehicles and not a few cars up to and including 4wd Toyotas. All is financed by the Australian tax payer. An Australian teacher at the local school told me that anything he asked for came. I used one of the six modern computers in his classroom. The whole building and any room I looked into was most impressive. This school only caters for up to 11 years old. After that the children commute to the High School on West Island. All pregnant mothers are required to go to Perth for their confinements. They and their partners are given free air transport. I am sure you get the picture. Thank goodness they are not still British Islands.

Have no fear dear readers we are far from unhappy. It is all part of the experience of long term travel. I am simply trying to be honest about our adventures, so many writers pretend that everything is nirvana but we all know that life is not like that. I will send short reports and positions when we get underway on the trip to Chagos. Start date is set for 8th June but we will not go unless the forecast shows the trades to be settled.

Happy times

David