Lionfish and Flying Foxes

It snowed while I was in New Zealand, and Audrey was freezing during our time in Tasmania, but we’ve now reached the opposite extreme. Today’s high was 84F, the low was 80F, humidity was around 75,000%, and the sun is pretty obviously focused on this island through a magnifying glass high in the sky. It may take a couple of days to get used to Christmas Island’s weather.

We’re here primarily to scuba dive and see crabs, although ironically not at the same time. Hama and Lynny took us out on a tiny boat with one other diver first thing this morning, and we hopped into water that was a balmy 82F. The coral was pretty beaten up from a storm a few months ago, but is still far better than most places we’ve ever dived. And since the island is an old volcano, the reef starts right where the cliffs meet the water, and drops into blackness a short distance from shore; it’s a really wild underwater scene. While diving we saw lionfish, a shark, an absolutely massive giant moray, and (most unbelievably) dolphins. My useless super power has always been the fact that the moment I go into the water, any dolphins in the vicinity swim away, but at the end of our first dive a school of dolphins decided to play in the boat’s bow wake while we were in the water waiting to get picked up, so either these dolphins were unaffected by my powers, or else the gods of useless superpowers have smitten me and left me powerless.

After diving I needed a nap – sun and baldness are a bad combo – so it wasn’t until later in the day that we set off in search of giant robber crabs, the largest land crustacean in the world. Lynny had suggested a spot in the national park that was good for seeing them, so we had to trust that our elderly Rav4 could survive one of the island’s very rough jungle roads, all the while dodging the smaller local red crabs along the route. When we finally arrived at a clearing surrounding an old Buddhist temple, a basketball-sized crab was already out waiting for us, and a flock of chickens, sensing we might have snacks, came running from the opposite side of the clearing. As the sun got lower more of the humungous crabs appeared, and I also noticed some odd black birds flying around. Looking closer, I turned to Audrey and said “I’m pretty sure those are bats”, and sure enough, Christmas Island is home to a sub-species of fruit bats affectionately called flying foxes due to their huge size. After walking a bit we found a durian tree that was apparently the best place in the world for a giant fruit bat, and several dozen of them showed not a bit of concern for us as we photographed from below.

The daily routine will likely be similar for the next week, although at some point soon we’ll hopefully acclimate to the weather, otherwise I fear the only other options are spontaneous combustion or slowly melting like the witch in the Wizard of Oz.