We had three days left before our trip and a heap of things to do to prepare for it. First there were all the camping clothes and swag sheets to be washed. Praise God the weather was holding out, although we did get some overnight rain to water my garden.
Jen helped me finish off the wire cage for the fig tree to keep the birds out. I needed someone tall and someone who would be careful of the plants below. She was a great help in both matters. Then Vi-Lay helped as I pruned the grape vine. We were amazed at how much light it let in once the overhead branches were removed. Only the Wisteria and the roses left to prune when I get home.
Thursday, our last day, was a busy tidy up day and last minute shopping. I hadn’t slept well during the night so had worked on the Monkey Mia blog, ready to post in the morning. Then there was washing, a fresh food shop which was going into a polystyrene box in my large suitcase and the frozen food into our hand luggage, just in case our luggage went missing. All was weighed before refrigerating, ready for the morning. I did the last minute watering of plants that are under the eaves, a thorough clean of my coffee machine then we were off to my favourite Asian food hall where we ordered a large serve of satay as well as some Yum Cha dishes we all liked. From here we did our last Woollies shop en route home. Jen then crashed out for an afternoon snooze while Vi-Lay went for another bush walk. I pottered around the house doing last minute chores, visited the neighbours to let them know we were leaving at 5:45am and gave away any food that would not last the fortnight.
Then it was time to relax before heading for bed with something to help me sleep. This time it worked, and although I woke just after 3am, I dosed off again till my alarm woke me at 4:30. I tiptoed around Jen as she snoozed in the lounge room; I wasn’t sure if she was still asleep. With all my things packed already, there were only my toiletries and the food stuff to pack and things around the house to tidy up and power points to turn off. Jen and Vi-Lay did the final food packing before the Uber, which was running a bit late, arrived. We were the last of the group to arrive at the airport; the plane was notoriously late and departed 45 mins later than scheduled. Finally we were off on our tropical island adventure, with a one-week stay on Cocos Keeling Islands before returning to the island of my birth to celebrate on Christmas in July!
As we flew into Cocos, we could see the two islands with the lagoon in the centre; the water was aqua, green and blue sparkling in the sun. We were quite surprised we had to fill in international forms before disembarking, even though we were officially still in WA. The local police gave us a rundown of the Covid rules which still apply here, as recently 400 out of the 600 population had contracted Covid. Masks in public places and 1.5 mt social distancing are still mandatory.
Loading up an airport trolley, we followed the group to the Cocos Motel/Resort (it uses both names). Our rooms allocated, Vi-Lay and I together and Jen with a Hash Harriot member. We later found out there were three Jennifers, how confusing! Tall Jen (Sally’s sister), Cousin Jen (on Lyn’s side) and Kiwi Jen, Danny’s Mum. Vi-Lay and I did a quick unpack, sorting our things and putting food into the fridge and freezer before joining those going to the only supermarket on West Island, as Monday was Hari Ria, a Muslim holiday. The prices here are exorbitant! One small packet of chips was nearly $5.00! I can see now why we were advised to bring our own food. The problem was, we only had a microwave, fridge and electric kettle and one teaspoon! No bowls, plates or cutlery! I inquired at the office if we could borrow some from the kitchen as we wanted to cook our own meals due to special dietary needs. I was asked what kind of diet, as they can cater for some, but had no idea what FODMAP diet was, so I explained it was food intolerances. The kitchen was very helpful and gave us bowls, plates and cutlery. I’m not sure how we are going to cook our food; boiling rice in a microwave is not easy.
At sunset, the three of us walked along the coast to where we thought there was a swimming area. Beside the accommodation there is a steep drop to the beach, as a lot of the coastline has been washed away in storms. Some of the waterfront was sandbagged over three meters high. The outer reefs are not very conducive to swimming as the sea level is quite low with very sharp reef below the water surface with strong currents. Here we spotted little black tipped fins; there was a group of little reef sharks hunting in the shallows. We did find a spot to access the beach further away from the settlement and it was here we found hundreds of crabs, some tiny little white ones that scurried over the white sand, larger crabs and hermit crabs with bright red legs and bodies protruding from their borrowed shells.
That evening we joined the group order for fish and chips I’d already eaten, having saved the Virgin airline lunch wrap for my 3pm dinner. The group sat around drinking at the bar, while Jen, Vi-Lay and I sat in the court yard directly outside the Salty Take Away, where there was a bit of breeze. Here they have a blackboard for what’s on the menu for the day; it’s something different everyday but only the one choice. Tonight’s choice was fish and chips.
Neesha, the group leader, introduced me to Dieter who operates the scuba diving and sea scooters, which I’d booked to do on the Monday holiday. He gave me instructions on where to meet him and what gear to bring.
Leaving the Hash group, we three headed for our rooms where the last of the organising and unpacking was done before jumping in the shower and into bed.
It wasn’t a bad night considering it was our first in a new environment. We had turned the air conditioning up to 27⁰ so we didn’t freeze under sheets at 25⁰, but around midnight I had to turn it down a degree as it was too muggy. Vi-Lay later said she thought it had gone off, which wouldn’t have surprised me. I slept much better after that, although I still woke at 4:30am. After a bit of a lie-in, waiting for the morning light, I got up and dressed, then realised it wasn’t morning glow, but an outside light confusing me. Oh well, I was up and dressed, I might as well go for my run. At first I kept to the lit streets but then I ran out of road lights and it was pitch dark. Praise God I didn’t trip over anything. I found a children’s park as I returned to the settlement area, where I did my exercises and stretches, not realising the ground had little mounds of dug soil. I was grateful that it was dry and easy to brush off. I then waited outside our room, enjoying the cool of the morning and the rolling surf as I waited for dawn and Vi-Lay to wake. Another day had begun.
After breakfast, Jen came over and the three of us went for a wander to see what was on the menu around town. As I was reading out aloud the days of opening from the roller window at Salty’s, it began to open. The restauranteur was preparing the sour dough for the day’s menu. I told him I was a barista and if he needed any help (the whole island is low on staff) I could offer some in exchange for a free coffee. He jumped at the offer and included a meal, asking if I was free in the morning at 8:30am. I could do the coffees while he did the breakfast orders. As we had nothing planned, I agreed. At least I would get a decent coffee and if I didn’t, it would be my own fault.
At 9am we saw our group’s bus returning from dropping the Hashers at the jetty for their day at Direction Island. Cousin Jen was the driver, she was taking some of us more mature group members to explore the island on the bus. Unfortunately the air conditioning wasn’t working and there were no windows in the bus, so not long into our journey I suggested that the driver leave the sliding side door open. What a difference that made. We had a great morning, firstly traveling west to the farthest point, stopping at places of interest and beaches on the way. Then back through the settlement to the East side of the island, around the far eastern point and up the northern side of the island, which was where the lagoon was. The waters here were much calmer. We chose a spot where we could park the bus and we could swim. Taking our goggles and snorkels, we walked up the Scouts Beach away from the direction of the current, then floated with the current along the shore, admiring the fish, large clams, sea cucumbers and reef sharks. A police vehicle pulled up as we were coming out of the water and told us we could walk out to the small island called Pulu Maraya, where the reef life was much better. Good to know for next time.
On returning to our room, we prepared our late lunch, congee from rice we had soaked the previous day. We hoped soaking it would help it cook faster and not over flow the bowls we had acquired from the kitchen. We had one bowl each to make our own concoction. Between us we had half a chicken breast, half a large oyster mushroom, half a chicken stock, grated carrot, zucchini and cos lettuce, which had a bit of freezer burn. This we microwaved slowly till the rice was soft, making a delicious rice porridge. So very filling!
After a bit of a rest to help the food settle, we walked it off on our afternoon walk with Jen, this time to the East end of the island. That evening there was a rumour of a BBQ, but as it was not organised till very late, we decided not to join. However, when Jen popped in around 7pm asking what we wanted to cook, we decided to cook up all the sausages, zucchini and an oyster mushroom cut in half for our salad lunch the following day. So in pyjamas, we joined the throng around the BBQ. It was only a small BBQ so as people finished their cook up, more food was added and others took over the cooking. I ended up with the tongs and Vi-Lay the torch. We then passed on the tongs, leaving with our grub. Saturday had become a late night.
On Sunday I slept in until 6am, before I got up to jog. Vi-Lay, who had gone in the same direction, later found me at the island’s outdoor gym where I was doing some exercises. Here we listened to a short sermon on God’s shelter and protection before singing our way back to our room. I had promised to help with barista duties at Saltmakers, so Jen, Vi-Lay and I sat in their outdoor area before it opened. Here I chatted with some young school teachers from Christmas Island who were on school holidays (they didn’t want to go to Perth during the winter – who could blame them with the option of a holiday in the sun on a tropical island). While I was chatting to them, one of the Hash women sat beside Jen; she had a drippy runny nose and sneezes, but told us it was just a cold. Hmmm! Really?
Jen and some of the group returned to Scouts Beach to snorkel that morning, while Vi-Lay and I went back to bed and fell asleep. We planned to go with a group in the afternoon. At 11:30am we waited outside the resort restaurant for their satay lunch. By the time it was ready, Jen and a few of the others joined us. We kept our distance from the lady with the ‘cold’. Vi-Lay and I were not impressed with the satay, which was fried on a hot plate, not over hot coals and served with sauce, cucumber and cold squares of rice. We had been spoilt with such great satay in Perth.
At 2pm we joined those on bus, some were going on an island explore, while other to Scouts Beach for a snorkel. Vi-Lay and I started walking across to the island laden with our gear but found it very difficult to balance on the rocks between West Island and Pulu Maraya. Pulu was where the ocean pools were full of fish. One other guy went across in front of Vi-Lay, who took it very slowly and carefully. I on the other hand felt very unsure and unstable, fearing I would fall and hurt myself on the rocks as the current and the winds were blowing me about. I had only gone a short way out, when I had to turn around. The others in the bus had been watching me and were also concerned. I unloaded most of my gear for them to take back to the bus and I tried again. This time with one flipper, I tried to swim across but found I was going nowhere in the strong rip. I hadn’t noticed that I had lost my flipper which those on the shore were shouting ‘fin, fin’. I thought they meant they had seen a fin of a shark! I looked around but couldn’t see one. Then Jen called out ‘flipper!’ Oh! Ok. It was being carried by the strong current further and further away from me. Swimming to catch it, I was exhausted and out of breath, so once I retrieved it, I returned to shore. My last attempt was to walk up the beach to where the crossing was shallower and try again. This time very slowly and gingerly I made my way across, carrying my flipper. Later, one of the ladies on the bus told me they wouldn’t leave until they had seen I had safely reached the island, as they were concerned that if I fell, the others were too far away to help me. Praise God this didn’t happen.
Vi-Lay and I had a lovely time on our inflatable rings, being carried along by a gentle current over the coral as we gazed through our goggles at the myriad of coloured fish below. There were occasions where we had to stop and walk across the coral as it was a bit too shallow to float over. We did this float-by twice before very carefully returning to the bus. This time I decided to swim back as the tide was higher. I felt much more comfortable swimming than walking across the unsteady rocks with a fast current and wind. Jen and the others on the bus had gone on a bit of a sightseeing tour and picked us up en route back to the settlement.
Needing to eat up most of our raw vegies, that afternoon we made ourselves San Choy Bao, before joining the group for Happy Hour cocktails. I sat myself down by the woman with the ‘cold’ before I realised it was her and quickly excused myself to get a drink which I then took back to our room. I didn’t want to take my chances of catching anything from her.
That evening Vi-Lay and I patched over the air conditioning and microwave lights which were so bright at night. We hadn’t previously had a problem with the ceiling light over my bed, but that night it kept flickering on and off, even after we had turned it off! So annoying! It eventually stopped flickering around 10pm, but we didn’t use the light again for fear that it would happen again.
Up before 5am, I fluffed around trying to get ready for the sea scooter dive. My snorkelling gear was packed into a scuba bag and dry things into a plastic bag with snacks. I then tried to take my RAT but couldn’t find the little pipet tubes which I thought came with the set. I had forgotten Vi-Lay had packed 10 sets into one 5 container box and left out the tubes. She was awake but I didn’t want to disturb her just in case she was wanting to sleep some more. I made and ate my breakfast before she stirred enough for me to ask her. I had forgotten she had put them on the top of her box of RAT’s. Both our third day’s RAT results were negative. Praise the Lord! Dieter picked me up at 7:30am for the sea scooter excursion, with his assistant Linnea from Norway. It was a full morning of sea scooter snorkelling with 6 customers. Our first stop was without the scooters at a spot Dieter called the Manta Ray cleaning station, which was in water about 10mt deep. There were three large rays; one very large one, coursed around an isolated coral formation where tiny fish darted out to clean the rays of parasites and other unwanted hitchhikers. It was at this first stop we learned how to disembark with our flippers/fins and snorkels and how to take them off before climbing up the ladder at the stern of the boat.
Our next stop was much closer to shore. This time we dropped anchor and Dieter also came with us, leading us up a channel with quite a strong rip. The sea scooters came to their forte here with three speeds to help us make our way against the current. It was quite shallow in places, where we needed to stop and dig our heels into the rocks to prevent us from being swept away. After a few of these rests, we headed out into the rip, cutting across the channel to reach the other side. The water here was much calmer and we were able to scooter around the coral outcrops, admiring the abundant array of fish, from the very tiny florescent blue to the very large parrot fish. We even saw quite a large bull nose shark. As we worked our way along the reef, Dieter returned to the boat to bring it further up the reef, where we would later meet him. In the meantime, Linnea took us out to a patch of coral which was called the broccoli, and yes, it really did look like a large broccoli covered with little green flowerets. We must have been in the water for well over an hour, as I had been getting cold, even with a full body wetsuit. Fortunately I had drunk lots of water, so with a full bladder I was able to warm myself up on several occasions.
When all were on board, I was feeling quite cold even in the sun, until I was offered a hot cup-a-soup which really did the trick. We also had a platter of fruit, cheese, pepperoni, carrots and celery sticks, olives and some dip and biscuits. Then off to another spot around the island where the mermaid line was dropped (a line with a buoy on the end) for all the swimmers to hold onto till we were all given our scooters. We then followed Linnea out into the deep ocean to look for the resident sharks. The water was so dark and a little scary, I was glad when we didn’t see them and came back closer to the reef. By this time I was getting cold again and decided to get out. Just after I had boarded the boat, 3 sharks were seen at a distance. I was quite glad I was in the boat at the time. Then it was time to return to the jetty, as it was close to 1:30pm. We cruised by the Ocean Protector, a very large boarder control vessel harboured just out from Direction Island. In the cove there were three yachts; one had a yellow flag, which indicated there were infectious persons aboard. We had also seen the border patrol dingy and the police boat heading their way.
Once back at the room I washed out all my snorkelling gear and my hair which was thick with salt. Vi-Lay gave me the news that our neighbour (the one who had a runny nose) had tested positive to Covid and was in isolation with her roommate. Unfortunately, they cordoned off the area where I usually sit to write my blog. We were all annoyed that she hadn’t thought of testing herself earlier when she had the ‘cold’ symptoms. She had thought that having had 4 vaccination shots, she would not get Covid. There is so much misinformation around.
Neesha then came over to fill us in on the schedule, which keeps changing due to Covid regulations and the public holiday. We wrote out a new schedule for ourselves with meals and activities, before Jen joined us for an early meal to use up all the salad and food stuffs before they expired. We had barbequed sausages, zucchini, mushrooms, haloumi cheese and bacon with baby cucumber, carrot, spinach and cos lettuce. Then off for another walk, looking for something sweet to finish off our meal. All the places were still closed, so it was just a walk around the town looking at the fish art on the high school wall, the island maps on the visitors centre walls, the golf map for the special Thursday golf across the runway and back to see what the breakfast menu offered in the morning. Regrettably, it wasn’t the menu Jen and Vi-Lay were after, which they missed this morning.
I was exhausted, but needed to write down what I’d been doing before I forgot, so I set up my tablet indoors, while Vi-Lay went to watch the turtles and the sunset at our doorstep.
Stay tuned for Cocos Island Part 2
Photos: 1. Popular island flower 2. Flying into Cocos 3. Jen & I walking along the coast 4. Me in my wetsuit 5. View from old jetty West Island 6. Scouts Beach, family pose 7. Hermit Crab 8. Jen points something out to Vi-Lay at old jetty 9. Sunset
Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise God for His protection and provision on our holiday on Cocoa Keeling Island. We were witness of His Hand in all that we experienced on our stay.
Please pray for us to continue in His divine health, staying free from Covid, accidents and the fiery darts of the evil one.
Please pray for those who have contracted Covid on this holiday that they will recover quickly and be able return home safely.
Pray for the remaining group to stay free from Covid and that all will be well to fly back to Perth on the 22nd.
Pray continue to pray with me for peace in Europe, for all who are caught up in the suffering the war has caused, both in Ukraine and Russia.
Please continue to pray for my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat to come to know Christ’s love for them.
Fantastic blog. Keep safe and enjoy Christmas Island. God bless.