When we arrived on Christmas Island there was a group of kids and adults waving to the plane from just outside of the airport fence. It seemed cute at the time, but a week later as we’re leaving I was thinking about that moment again, and when your whole world is a 52 square mile island that is totally isolated in the midst of the vast ocean, the twice-weekly arriving flight really is a big deal. The flight means that you’ll get to see new visitors and returning residents in the coming days, that fresh produce will be onboard in the styrofoam coolers that so many people bring with them, and it’s the one time that there’s a direct connection to the rest of the planet. If I was a kid growing up on the island, I’d probably wave, too.
It’s sad to be leaving, but we tried to make the most of our last day. I spent a couple of hours down on the cliffs photographing birds again early this morning, then Audrey and I departed our awesome house rental for the last time, dropped off our borrowed locator beacon at the police station, and said goodbye to the ladies who have been helping us out all week at the visitor center. From there we headed through the park to Margaret Knoll, and discovered one of the island’s best spots for bird photography – I’m not quite sure how we missed it this whole time, but both Audrey and I came away with some keepers.
Our last stop for the trip was Dolly Beach, which turned out to be down the roughest road we’ve yet encountered – maybe not the smartest place to visit when the twice-weekly flight departs in just five hours. To give credit where it’s due, our rental car looks like it should be taken out back and shot, and it sounds like it’s about to fall to pieces when you drive it, but the thing got us over some gnarly terrain and up and down some steep grades. Ironically, after surviving the route to the Dolly Beach trailhead, the trail itself was in the best condition of anything we’ve hiked here, with a nice boardwalk most of the way. It rained a bit as we arrived, which apparently triggers every crab on the island to come out and play, so Audrey will have another half a million photos of red, blue and robber crabs to edit during our flight back to Perth. Since the road to the trailhead took longer than expected we had to cut the hike short and didn’t actually see the beach, which gives us yet another reason to return some day. While rattling our way back to the airport we also got a tiny taste of what the red crab migration must be like as we dodged hundreds of crabs who had been triggered by the rain and decided to come out to frolic in the road.
It’s going to be a shock to the system going from an island of 1700 people to Perth and its two million residents, but we’re there for just a couple of days before the trip takes us back to some of Australia’s more remote locations. This three month adventure is moving along a bit too quickly, but as hoped, every day feels like it is creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Bravo– both of you! Such great images of these beautiful /majestic birds. Well done! They are gorgeous to see in flight like you’ve captured them.