Tour da Cocos

A lazy start to the day sitting on the verandah but not at all concerned that the weather looks a little cloudy. The breeze keeps the bugs and the rain away. Think positive.

The boys set off to organise e-bikes for us to discover the island. I haven’t ridden a bike for a few years but ‘they’ say you don’t forget.

Well, I’ve never ridden an e -bike. And yes, they help you move along at a cracking pace. But these bikes were soooo heavy, and very hard to manoeuvre. But we did it. All day ! We covered this little slice of paradise from north to south. Lots of kilometres.

First stop the cooperative supermarket. We were told to bring most of our food as the supermarket and restaurants are light on products and are only open certain days.

Our bags were crammed with cheese & crackers , jatz, fruit, cereal, wraps bagels ham etc etc. Frozen milk kept it all cold route. Lucky we did, as the supermarket had very empty shelves. Lots of deodorant? They definitely need it in the heat, but do the locals and visitors buy it at very inflated prices?

We visited the Big Barge. A unique barge repurposed into an Art Gallery and cafe. It’s by the water and a delightful spot for a coffee and sweet treat.

The barge built by the Clunies-Ross family on Home island and finally brought to West Island retired and opened as a gallery.
The history of the barge
I had to have a little swing.
With friends Jo and Martyn

Back on the bikes and along to Trannies Beach – which we renamed Frannies Beach!

A beautiful swim in crystal clear water with colourful fish and tons of busy crabs going about their business.

Martyn leaping out of the water.

A quick dry off and back in the bikes to next stop the jetty where the ferry leaves for Home island and Direction Island ( voted the most beautiful beach in Australia) – and we’re going tomorrow.

The boys looking at the lagoon across to Home island.

Thursday, the boys will be swimming across the lagoon. Partly for a challenge but mostly to raise funds for breast cancer. Jo has made a good recovery from breast cancer and Martyn wants to continue to raise awareness and much needed funds. I will include a link if you’d like to donate a $ towards it.

The weather isn’t great but it’s not boiling hot! That’s a positive.

We cycled back to Waves our house here and enjoyed lunch on the deck before setting off to the other end of the island to the Yacht Club.

Beautiful beaches.

The photo doesn’t show the colours!
Attractive reef shoes for these beautiful beaches.

The Yacht Club was a disappointment! Not an icy drink in sight. But pristine beaches.

Back to Waves for a well deserved shower and Gin & Tonic on the verandah.

Tonight we’re going to the Cocos club. There’s not much alcohol on these islands but there is at the Cocos club. But dinner! They don’t do food. The restaurant that’s open tonight is only for a school function!!! But they supply a bbq pack which we’ll cook at home on our verandah. Not a disappointment.

Apparently there are a few little sharks.

Cocos Keeling Islands here we come.

‘No overseas trip for us I said.’ After our epic 9 week trip last year we needed to holiday closer to Australia.

2024 has seen us go to Adelaide twice. Once for the wonderful Adelaide Festivals ( and yes my choir Soul Song sang ),. Back to Adelaide in June for our nephew Luke’s 50th and his brother Kenrick’s 40th.

A visit to Sydney for my niece Pips 40th was fun with a beautiful High Tea at the Intercontinental Hotel.

A road trip to Tamworth for Steve’s birthday, staying at Goonoo Goonoo a cattle property set up for guests. It’s really beautiful with a top class restaurant called Glasshouse perched on a hill overlooking the green pastures.

Then a visit to the Tamworth Regional Art Gallery for a quilt exhibition and lecture by Jenny Bowker AM. Jenny travelled with her husband Bob to many middle eastern countries when he was an ambassador. She made the most of her time there by connecting with local craftspeople and has told the story of her adventures in her quilts. Quite extraordinary.

Our early November trip to French New Caledonia was cancelled due to the continued civil unrest in the country. hopefully we’ll get there at another time. Steve’s Grandmother grew up there so he’d love to discover the world she lived in there.

Our final trip is to the Cocos Keeling Islands. Sitting in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia it is close to Malaysia so many of the Cocos Malay inhabitants are Islamic.

We are on West Island for a few nights. Then Home Island.

There are around 600 people with many on West Island where the airport is located and then Home Island has many of the Cocos Malay people and the very old Oceania House.

After a very long travel day due to island winds delaying our plane we finally arrived around 8.30. There are only 2 flights a week from Perth and last week the plane got to Christmas Island then had to turn back.

An unscheduled stop at Learmouth for fuel ( in case we couldn’t stop at Christmas Island ). We managed to land at Christmas and dropped off passengers and picked up others doing the round trip back to Perth.

Our house is great. We walked from the airport as our host took the bags in her car. It’s opposite the water and has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for ourselves and friends Jo and Martyn.

Outside our house.

Tomorrow adventures await.