Narelle and Catherine went free-diving in the morning so us guys went snorkeling at Flying Fish Cove. This little beach is just of the kampung and beside the harbour where the phosphate ships come in and the navy zodiac boats are launched. You would not expect this industrial area to be the location of one of the best snorkeling sites I’ve ever visited.

I could not get over how colourful and plentiful the fish and the coral were. And it’s all just off the beach. The colours on the fish were amazing, so iridescent, so striking. I couldn’t get enough. 

There was a lot to explore, but sadly, on my second trip out, a couple of strong waves startled me and I kicked a rock/coral and gashed my foot. I got out after a while, even though the urge to stay in was strong. Glen took care of me but really what I wanted to do was go snorkeling again.

Beside the jetty there’s a tree with hollows in it. At the bottom of the hollow was a silver bosun chick, happily sitting there, abandoned by its parents while they were out enjoying life. I took a few photos and left it alone. I’m not sure what an adult silver bosun looks like, but I have seen about five golden bosuns and they are stunning! They shimmer in the light and have long thin tail feathers. They’re beautiful birds and Christmas Island is the only place where you get the golden variants. 

We stayed for a while at the cove then stopped into the supermarket on the way back. Glen bought medical supplies and bandaged up my foot, then we waited for Narelle and Catherine to come back.

Margaret Knoll, Greta Beach and Dolly Beach 

Narelle and Catherine arrived back at about 1 then we all set off for Margaret Knoll, a closed down viewpoint that you get to after walking through the forest. It’s half-fallen apart and we absolutely did not climb up to check out the view, but we did get treated to a lot of red crabs scuttling through the undergrowth and about five golden orb weaver spiders.

Technically there aren’t meant to be any spiders on the island, but the orb weavers were introduced and have well and truly set up shop. They are massive! And their webs are big too. They’re cool to look at but I think I’d have a heart attack if I walked into one. Parks staff arrived just as we were heading out…

From there we continued down the coast to Greta Beach and Dolly Beach. At the turn off, Glen really needed me to stop the car so he could urgently go to the bathroom. He squat by the side of the track while I held up a towel and the crabs looked on in wide-eyed horror at what was happening. Poor Glen!

Our little Rav4s couldn’t make the steep decline down (or wouldn’t have made it up) so we parked the car and set off along the track to Greta Beach. Along the way, through the humid and mosquito infested rainforest we saw blue, red, and robber crabs.

Red crabs don’t get out of the way that much; they’re a bit dumb. Blue crabs scurry away as soon as they spot you; they look like they’re smiling the whole time though. Robber crabs are slower and also don’t get out of the way but there are fewer of them.

After what felt like forever, we reached the steel stairs down to Greta Beach and it was as described: sad. This is where a lot of the marine debris collects and there was a LOT of it. I only saw the bin bags when we got back, so you can take one down and collect the debris then leave it back near the car park. 

Most of it was plastic, either broken or whole — toothbrushes, thongs, bottle tops, etc. It was really depressing. The bright side were all the hermit crabs there and there were a lot.

After Greta Beach we continued walking towards Dolly Beach but after another 15 minutes we stopped to reassess. We figured we were still a long way from the start of the boardwalk. By that time we were getting tired so a vote was taken and we high-tailed it back to the car park. I timed it this time and it only took us about 40 minutes but I was so glad we called it quits.

Next up: the Blowholes.

The Blowholes

The boardwalk here is really well done. We were threatened by a couple of blue-footed boobies but otherwise had the place to ourselves. We walked over the rocky coast and the blowholes, enjoying the sound of dragons sleeping, and the rush of air and mist.

We then continued to the southern tip of the island as we’d been given a recommendation to have sunset drinks from somewhere around there. We stopped at the railway ruins, which were interesting but the view to the water was obstructed. We decided to continue on to the next temple, in one last ditch effort.

We rocked up to find three guys there taking photos and having a beer and knew we were at the right spot. We cracked open a bottle of wine, had some drinks, and talked to the locals about good places to visit. The sunset was very nice, and then, once the sun had gone, we zoomed back into town, dodging frogs, red crabs and robber crabs.

We had a big dinner at Lucky Ho then went home.