Itinerary

Day 1 – Depart Perth International Airport.  Arrive Christmas Island mid afternoon.  Drive to accommodation.  Provision.  Short relaxing walk through Settlement, along the oceanfront, passing the cemetery, the Grotto and finishing at the Golf Course.

Day 2 – Today starts with an optional pre breakfast swim in the warm sheltered waters of Flying Fish Cove.  We return to our accommodation for breakfast prior to a morning tour of the northern portion of the island.  After lunch we walk From Greta to Dolly Beach.  Dolly is the islands most impressive beach with soft white sand surrounded by hundreds of coconut palms.

Day 3 - After breakfast we walk The Circui t Track, the first of our longer walks (8km). Starting near the centre of the island, The Circuit Track is an old Parks Australia access road, which is now partially overgrown and winds its way down from the island’s rainforest clad plateau, along the southern shore terraces, eventually arriving at Winifred Beach.

Day 4 - There is an option each morning before breakfast to start the day with a swim or snorkel in Flying Fish Cove.

This mornings walk is The Dales.   The Dales walk travels through an amazing landscape like nowhere else on earth.  There are seven dales carved by freshwater streams that run down to the sea.  As we walk from Hughes Dale waterfall to Anderson Dale we’ll pass thousands of Red, Blue and Robber Crabs all keeping the forest floor clear of vegetation.

For those that wish, we spend the afternoon aboard one of the islands dive boats exploring the island’s northern coastline.  The limestone coastline is totally inaccessible on foot and alive with thousands of breeding seabirds.  We cruise the sheltered coastal waters past caverns and caves.  In the gin clear waters below swim millions of exotic reef fish that call the extensive reef systems fringing the island home.  For those keen on a swim prior to going back to our accommodation, we stop for a short snorkel at West White Beach. We then return to Flying Fish Cove with the setting sun at our backs. 

Day 5 - Walk OR Rest Day. Once on the island we’ll decide which option you would like to take. 

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Day 6 - The Boulder Track follows the coastal terrace for several kilometres.  With high limestone walls on one side and the endless Indian Ocean on your other side, this walk is favoured by many due to the spectacular traverse of this remote corner of the island.  It’s dead flat, with several short sidetracks to the coast.

Day 7 – Today we walk to Martin Point via the West White Beach Track.After a flat 8km walk you reach the beach and a swim if you like.  From here you can either take the return track back or climb the hill as a short cut back to our transport.

Day 8 – A quiet morning as we pack and prepare for our flight to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, one of the last undeveloped tropical island groups in the world.  There is also a chance to take some last minute photos, shop or send a few emails from the tourist centre.  We arrive on West Island late afternoon, check into our accommodation and watch the sun go down from our ocean front motel.

Day 9 – Today you have two walk options, the Atoll or the Ferdinand Walk. The Atoll walk is the hardest walk of our 11-day trip.  This incredible walk is truly remote, scenic, unique and satisfying. The Atoll walk starts on Home Island and at low tide we wade and walk across the lagoon to uninhabited, palm covered islands, following the outer reef to South Island, the largest island in the group.  You walk the entire length of South Island along an incredibly remote beach covered in decades of beach washed coral rubble, seashells and other flotsam that has floated ashore like unwelcome souvenirs of ocean ship passages.  Nearing the end we join the Ferdinand Walk and trek inland to the highest point of the atoll, past a recently discovered grave and through an ancient Calophyllum forest prior to meeting the others that took part in the shorter Ferdinand Walk.  We finish the day with a drink and snacks on an uninhabited coral island with just enough time for a relaxing swim in the tepid turquoise waters of the lagoon.

Day 10 – We board the R.J.Hawke for our boat trip to North Keeling Island.  An hour north of the main atoll, North Keeling is one of Australia’s remotest and most inaccessible islands.  Very few tourists visit this island and we are the only tour company to frequently visit here.  After scrubbing our boots in antiseptic, we make our way ashore onto what is probably Australia’s most pristine island habitats.  Fringed by virgin and virtually unsnorkelled coral reef, the island is home to tens of thousands of breeding seabirds including boobies, tropicbirds and frigatebirds.  We walk the perimeter of the island’s central lagoon and across to the location of the German warship The Emden, which was sunk just off shore by the HMAS Sydney in November 1914.

Day 11 – Today we visit Home Island. Populated by a community of Cocos Malays, many of whom are direct descendents from the original slaves bought to the islands in 1824, Home Island is crowned at the southern end by the spectacular and palatial residence of the Clunies-Ross family.  Hemmed off from the community by an ancient stone wall, the grounds of Clunies Ross House sport lush gardens that flourish in soil bought in from Christmas Island by the family to create the only arable place on the entire island.  If the current owners are at home we may be able to organise a internal tour of the mansion. 

Day 12 – Our final morning is a chance to revisit your favourite spot, have a swim or snorkel, catch the ferry back to Home Island or just relax prior to boarding our plane.

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Walk somewhere none of your friends have walked.