26 September 2010
The low had not developed as intensely as forecast. Now we were all set for our day on West Island and what a great day it turned out to be too. WARC had chartered a ferry specially to take us from Direction Island over and across the wide expanse of lagoon half an hour away. Eight boats had already left for Mauritius, three yesterday afternoon with another five today. How many more I wondered would go, but gradually people began trickling ashore in their dinghies and by the time the ferry arrived, the crews from all nine boats left in the anchorage were assembled on the jetty. A minibus drove us to a local art gallery, The Big Barge, now converted into an art gallery and craft centre. It never ceases to amaze me how talented people are even on this sparsely populated atoll. We bought a book of stunning photographs which will give us infinite pleasure for many years to come and allow us to reminisce over our time here. How long these islands will be inhabited is anyone's guess. Our island tour guide, John, told us that if a cyclone flattens the islands, the population will be repatriated to Perth. Then it will become solely a strategic air base as is the case on Diego Garcia. The Australian government are spending 210million AD to upgrade and lengthen the runway which is already 4km long and 65million AD on constructing a new jetty. A large quarantine area, used in 2006 to keep elephants for the required six month period, and ultimately bound for zoos in Perth and Melbourne, is now home for the construction workers brought in to build the new jetty. The island is typically tropical and as pretty as they come. The island was cleared of much of the original vegetation by John Clunies-Ross back in the early 1800's to make way for extensive coconut plantations but they have now become over grown. Now his grandson harvests clams for commercial use and breeds Cocos angel fish, unique to the islands, both for export worldwide, the latter fetching hundreds of dollars each. The waters of the lagoon are rich in all kinds of sea life with an estimated 20,000 hawksbill turtle population. Right on the south tip of the island, wind and kite surfing is world class. Our barbeque lunch was a soggy affair as we all huddled under a canopy for shelter. It did not dampen our spirits however as the prize giving for the last leg was held with Voyageur coming second in her class. David also won first prize for being the closest to guessing our ETA in Cocos. But the best was yet to come, a wine and cheese festival held on the beach. While the wine flowed, huge platters of cheese and biscuits were carried round, while we were entertained by different music artists. Yabu, an aboriginal band, were outstandingly good and for the first time ever I saw real aboriginal dancing. Dennis Simmons, Guathda, his aboriginal name, danced to the song, "I am an Aboriginal Australian", mimicking an emu and a kangaroo. It was so extraordinarily expressive I was totally struck by the creativity in the movements of the dance. He was equally impressive playing the didgeridoo. With everyone cheering and clapping, the applause at the end of the performance "brought the house down". It seemed as if the entire local population were there and it was great to see everybody mixing, dancing and generally having fun. We hardly noticed that it kept raining! It was one of the best days of the rally so far. We literally had a ball.
Susan Mackay