Despite its remoteness (the nearest land, Indonesia, is over 900km distant) and tiny size Cocos Keeling has played a part in several important events. Charles Darwin visited here on the Beagle and based his (amazingly accurate) theory of atoll formation partly on his researches here; Direction Island was the hub of the Empire telegraph system with cables laid to Perth, Singapore, the Cape and Aden thence London by 1901; and as a result of that the Direction Island telegraph station was raided in late 1914 by the German raider ‘Emden’, commanded by the “last gentleman of war”. Emden was surprised in the act by complete fluke, engaged, and sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Royal Australian Navy’s first ever naval engagement.

There are two inhabited islands, Home Island where the descendants of Clunies-Ross’s Malay workers live and West Island which now has a strategically important airstrip and is the centre of what passes for tourism in these parts. The main activity is kitesurfing - the conditions are well-nigh perfect for learners and improvers:

And some of it is quite pretty; here is the southern tip looking across the lagoon to uninhabited South Island:

But yachties like us are largely restricted to uninhabited Direction Island (no ferry service and it’s a long way across the lagoon in a dinghy).