West Island is where most of the expats live, and Home Island is where most of the locals live. Only a short ferry ride away is the eastern part of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The weather was fickle today as Kaylene advised me to bring a rain jacket and pre-order my lunch. Yesterday I was so disappointed when they had no lamb chops at the Tropika Restaurant. The big ferry isn't in service at the moment, and the small ferry allows only 15 passengers, so Kaylene said I had to be there early. At the dock there were 18 people, so the captain made an exception for the remaining three of us and allowed all of us on. The 9:30 AM ferry is the last ferry of the day as many who live on West Island travel to Home Island for work. A half hour later and only a little wet from sea spray, I stepped off into Home Island. As advised I pre-ordered my lunch and then went for a stroll. It was more like a wade in some places; believe it or not, these are roads:
Walking and wading, I made my way to the top of Home Island. I was at Sandy Point, where I tried to get Juliett (my drone) into the air, but conditions have proven extremely challenging these past couple of days. I'm unable to fly on much of West Island due to being so close to the airport. As it has a mosque, Home Island is probably the only place in Australia where you'll actually hear the call to prayer.
In many countries, the predawn prayer call has been my de facto alarm clock. It was time for lunch, so I had nene chicken with rice. The girls did really well, making sure it wasn't too spicy. The time was right as it started raining again.
It was time for more exploring after my fabulous lunch. Along the eastern end of the island I was shocked at the amount of plastic detritus: shampoo bottles, thongs, children's toys, fishing buoys, rope, and all sorts of other rubbish were lying around, and it all seems to be either white or blue. Plastic is even a problem on uninhabited islands. Henderson Island in the Pitcairn group is notorious as millions of pounds of plastic litters the eastern end of the island. After a long day my feet were sore, and I had walked practically every road on Home Island. It's funny how that's its name when all the homes look the same.
It's not just the roads, but the monsoon has flooded many parts of the island.
Home Island has a small but engaging museum with some interesting artwork and history about the islands.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands were part of Singapore whilst it was still a British colony, and they were transferred to Australia in 1955. I should add that I don't feel like I'm in Australia when all the street names are in Malay.
The 3 PM ferry was full, so I had to wait an hour for the 4 PM ferry. A bus meets the ferry and it only costs 50 cents to anywhere on the island. After helping Mark with an errand at the local tip, I hit the Club for a couple glasses of wine. I haven't met many locals at the Club; it seems to be only visitors. This evening, Mark would take myself, Allison, and Bianca fishing. They have also been staying at the bungalows for the past few days. Turtles and reef sharks would also put on a show for us this evening. After throwing some bait, a few sharks came in, and then a few more came in. Before long there were more than 50 of them in a scrum for bits of fish. The trick is to pull a shark up so that we can observe it hanging from a bit of fish, and for this you need firm, muscular bits of fish. We pulled one shark up too high and it was flopping around on the pier. I just had to make sure I didn't get my toes too close!
Right at the end of our evening, we finally caught a fish.
This is a giant trevally, called a "GT" locally. It was only fitting that we had a delicious fish dinner this evening.
Tomorrow, the next leg of my journey continues even though I hear the flight status is iffy at the moment. My top highlights from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are meeting Kaylene and Mark, swimming with turtles, and listening to the rain on a tropical island. A special place this is for sure.
