COCOS KEELING ISLANDS (19th - 26th June 2012)

Fun on the Sandbar .............................



We arrived on West Island on Saturday afternoon, around 2pm, and were met by Bill from Cocos Bungalows at the airport.  Walking from the airport to our bungalow we settled in and then ducked around the corner to the supermarket and purchased a few essential items (like the milk, bread, tea, coffee, butter etc). 

Directly behind here between the bungalows and
the Airport is the supermarket (so only about
20 mtrs to walk to get the groceries)

Just in case your wondering, the walk from the airport to our bungalow was about 100 mtrs (maybe) and this is the view from our room -

The Pondok (like a camp-kitchen) for patrons' use

After packing away the groceries and our clothes etc, we went for a little stroll to familiarise ourselves with the area.  West Island and Home Island are the two islands in the atoll inhabited.  The rest of the islands are not lived on, but often visited on day trips and occasionally as week-enders/camp-overs by locals and visitors.

This is "The Club", open from 5pm for drinks and 'stories' - a great spot to meet the local people and have a nice cool, refreshing G&T, beer, Chardy, ice-water  on a balmy evening after a hot day playing in the water and sun!  This building is also the cyclone shelter for the West Islanders.

The cricket pitch & footy field next to The Club. Notice the airstrip behind th fence in the back-ground.  There also are some wonderful shade trees here which lower the temp immeasurably when you move from the direct sun into their shade!

Finding the information centre and having a look at what was available, we decided to book a "Home Island Tour" for the next day with local identity, Ossie.  We found the bus stop for where we would need to be for the bus to pick us up and take us to the jetty for the ferry transfer to Home Island where Ossie would be meeting us.

Since we weren't able to obtain a hire car, scooter or bike (they were all booked out by the arrival of  unexpected workers on top of the crew re-surfacing the airstrip),  we had to rely on the public transport and this was the place -

The Jetty where we were to catch the ferry



Arriving on Home Island, Ossie and his friend Nek Nang collected us and 4 others who came on the trip too and we headed off in the little green bus.



Greg and Ossie

 Greg and the shop-keeper on Home Island where we bought a cold drink to sip on - I got a sparkling guava can and Greg a sparkling seaweed, but then he wanted to swap after we opened them in the bus. 

 Unfortunately, the museum was closed with some work being done on it, but we did hear that it has some really special items to look at in there.
Hopefully another time will come and we'll get to see it.







                                                                                The new cyclone shelter being erected on Home Island

Part of the banana plantation on Home Island

This is one of many, many boats that wash up on the islands, some more substantial than this, others less so.

Ossie and Greg discussing the benefits of coconuts and their by-products.   This pretty spot was just lovely and the stop here gave us a chance to talk quite a lot with Ossie.  So far, we had learnt that Home Island is the home of the Malay population of Cocos.  All the children, who attend school on West Island, and any Home Islanders working on West Island, must catch the ferry across each morning at around 7.30 and travell the 45 minutes across the lagoon, and then catch the buses to the Settlement and the School.

School goes from Kindergarten to Year 10, and any high-schoolers wishing to do Years 11 & 12 need to attend those in Perth (5-1/2 hour flight from Cocos).

The original site of John Clunies-Ross's home "Oceania" which has been bought by a private investor. 

The person who purchased "Oceania" lives in the large home beyond these walls and has asked that locals and tourists respect their privacy by not entering beyond the old garden area, so unfortunately we didn't get to see the "old home", but the workmanship in the bricks of the walls was amazing.  The bricks were brought in from England for it's establishment.

The tag on the back end of this bird signifies that it is already owned by a local person and must not be killed for food or taken for one's own personal property.

See grinding wheels below

Following the tour of Home Island,Ossie took us then to a local Malay home where we were shown the intricate workmanship of making baskets/bowls and cooking utensils from the coconut tree's fronds, husks and shells.  Nek and the gentleman who owned the home were more than happy to explain and show how they managed to make the articles.  Husking of coconuts was also made to look so simple (approx. 5 seconds per coconut, if you really know what your about).

In the plastic container on the table was a local fried product with an appearance very similar to thick prawn chips.  They were actually fish chips (fish flesh ground and formed into a patty, coloured and then deep fried in coconut oil).  Pretty scrumptious with home-made lime water.  We had a great time here learning from these generous people and their pride in their heritage and traditions is really lovely to see.

Greg under instruction (while I diligently took the photo and kept my ears flapped forward)

 & LOOK WHAT HAPPENS

WHEN YOU LISTEN TO YOUR TEACHER .......

Hey, Abbey:  ha ha! Just Lookit - we both did make coconuts

 After some awesome sunset photos, Ossie took us to a pavillion
where we partook of a scrumptious traditional Malay dinner, prepared for us by Ossie's family and brought down to the pavillion as a surprise all set up for us as we entered the pondok.

After everyone got some good sunsets, we asked Greg to collect  his belongings and make haste to the pavillion!

Ossie's family provided a very substantial meal, with a great variety of food and to our surprise, much of the meal was also prepared using the baskets and containers along with the coconut and coconut milk that we learnt about today on the tour.

Such a great trip and our thanks to Ossie, his family and friends for making it a very special introduction to Cocos for us.

next up........... Geoff's glass bottom boat, Karen's yatch club photography and Kylie & Ash's canoe trip...