The Settlement at Christmas Island

Today I started out taking a photo from my current accomodation.

It’s a really nice place, a fair bit above the water, but on the lowest road in the settlement. I went along it, past the phosphate works, around the roundabout (that only has two entries - the entire reason for it seems to be that it allows people to do a u turn), and on towards some housing that’s been voted as having the nicest gardens,

And the wharf.

I was in search of somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, nothing was open. It’s Chinese New Year (with two public holidays on Monday and Tuesday), and the time of year when everyone takes holidays anyway, so there are very few shops that will be open for the first four days I’m here. Fortunately, by the end of the day I’d found the only grocery store that was open today (it was open between 4pm and 8pm) and I’d found everything I needed.

I had a tour of the town. The tour guide was exceptional. We picked mangoes and breadfruit at the park. He also pointed out the banana plantation that I can go to and pick my own bananas. While we were in the park, which is the next level up in the settlement, at Poon Saan (which means halfway up the hill), we went to the lookout there. Where I’m staying is at the end of the bottom road in the photo.

The end of the crab migration is imminent, but they still have most of the road closures. You can see the barriers they put along the sides of the road to channel the crabs toward particular crossings they’ve made - either underneath the road, or a crab bridge.

There are still a lot of crabs migrating.

I went for a snorkel at Flying Fish Cove (next to the wharf in the earlier picture) and saw tremendous numbers of different corals and fish. It’s been identified as one of the best snorkelling sites, and it’s really great. There were a lot of other people in the water, but there was plenty of room for everyone. Unfortunately I lost my underwater camera, and although I spent a lot of time looking for it, I couldn’t find it. I’d been having trouble with my mask, and while I was sorting that out, I lost my camera, but didn’t realise it until the next time I had mask problems.

Lastly, here is a picture of the sunset from my abode.