CHRISTMAS ISLAND: THE ISLAND OF RED CRABS

Hello, dear reader! How are you today? I hope you have great day, because I am, as always; mostly when I think about great places around the world to visit. The other day, I and Mr. Story Teller have this conversation about the unique places we want to visit someday and he told me about this Island. I found this Island is really amusing and that is why I want to share it with you. So here it is, the Island where I plan to have vacation someday, to see by my own eyes the beauty of its uniqueness.

The name is Christmas Island, a dot in the Indian Ocean, located 2600km north-west of Perth, Western Australia. Even though it is an Australian Territory, its closest neighbour is Java, 360km away.

There are so many things we can expect to see in this tiny dot in the map. 63% part of this Island is national park with rainforest full with endemic of its natural flora and fauna to give you both easy and difficult natural walk. For those whose loves fauna, the number and variety of tropical seabirds in this island are amazing. But the most captivated for me is this Island habitation of Crabs.

There first thing that come in my mind about Crabs is: YUMMY! I love Crabs! In fact, all members of my family enjoy Crabs very much. I am not able to eat too many Crabs like I used to these days since I hate the crackling and opening the shell part; too exhausting (which is funny thought since  I was usually always able to eat so many Crabs. Hmmm... maybe it is because I getting old or something, I don't know.). But it is not the reason why I think Crabs in Christmas Island is special. Not the taste, not the size, but simply the numbers and its habituation which is very unique.

Let me introduce you to this beautiful creature. It is Red Crab. It is not always bright red; some are in orange color and rarely found in purple shade. They are big size of Crabs; an adult Crab may measure up to 116 mm across. They eat fallen leaves, fruits, flowers and seedlings. They prefer fresh green leaves but will eat any fallen leaves. They are not solely vegetarian however. They will eat other dead crabs and birds, the introduced Giant African snail and palatable human rubbish if the opportunity presents itself.

Red Crabs live in a variety of habitats including coastal shore terraces, and even domestic gardens but commonly they live in the moist environment of the rainforest. Christmas Island red crabs grow slowly, reaching about 40mm in carapace width after 4-5 years. They are sexually mature at this age and begin to participate in the breeding migrations which happening every year around Oct 2, Nov 1, Nov 30 or Dec 30. This migration of the Red Crabs is one from several main attractions in Christmas Island.

Every year around that dates, adult Red Crabs will migrate to the sea to do breeding. Males lead the first wave of the downward migration and are joined by females as they progress. Larger males arrive at the sea first (after about 5-7 days) but are soon outnumbered by females.

The chaos start to happen when they march to the sea from the rainforest where they hid themselves the whole year before breeding migration time is come. They do marathon along the way to the shore for making babies and nothing can stop them! And then, you will able to see them crawling all over the place; in the street, behind your bookcase, inside your house if they able to find a way to enter, under your car, inside the schools, hospitals, stores, definetely EVERYWHERE!

People who live in the Island seem already feel casual about their tiny invaders.

A school teacher, Jan Sullivan said,

"The school is in the migration path, and during this time the verandah is covered in red crabs. Doors need to be kept closed to prevent them taking over the classes."

But people must open the doors sometimes.

"I was watching as a seven-year-old girl used her foot to prevent a crab from scrambling into the classroom she was just leaving," Ms. Sullivan says. "The crab grabbed hold of the top of her sock, and she spent the next five minutes giggling as she tried to shake it off. Eventually, both girl and crab happily went their separate ways."

In her classroom, Ms. Sullivan uses a small wastepaper basket to scoop crabs from between cushions or under desks. Students shuffle their feet to avoid stepping on them. At lunchtime, the crabs wander among the students' feet, munch on leftovers, then continue their journey; race to the Sea.

Stephanie, a woman who’s lived on the Island almost entire of her life told story about how, when she was younger, she kept a few small crabs for a short time before letting them go. She gave them names, like "Scuttle," "Sebastian," "Jack," and "Jill."

When she did that, sometimes nips are unavoidable.

"I have had plenty of nips by the crabs," Stephanie says.

"They don't hurt unless they are the really big ones with huge claws or the babies that have really small claws and pinch you."

It takes about 14-15 days for the Red Crabs to do their mating and breeding before they march back to the rainforest. A month later prawn-like animals called megalopae gather in pools close to the shore for 1-2 days before changing into young crabs and leaving the water. Although only 5mm across, the baby crabs begin their march inland. Once again the citizen of the Christmas Island have to be very careful to not hurt this weak and way tiny creature then their parents a month before,

because these babies is important to be save; to maintain their population, which is not easy, mostly with the others animals around them always trying to feeding on them.

It takes about 9 days to reach the plateau. Here they seem to disappear and are rarely seen, living in rocky outcrops and under fallen tree branches and debris on the forest floor for the first three years of their life.

Some will save along the way and conquer the hard life in the wild and comeback again to the street 5 years later to do their own breeding migration, but some will lost; become preys of other animals.

Back to the yummy part (tehehe^_^), when Mr. Story Teller told me about this Crabs, my first response is,

“Let’s go there during the migrate season. And when they pass through our boat, let’s open the door and lure them into our pan so we can have feast over them for several days!”

Ah, imagine that! It must be so good! I was thought.

But too bad, Red Crabs is poisonous! (T.T) Hhhhh… Not fair!

It must be feels like letting the most delicious food march in front of our door when we really craving of it and not able to do anything at all!

Anyway, isn’t the Christmas Island sound fun? (^_^)

There is three different ways to reach Christmas Island.

First, you can go in casual way; by flights. You can fly to Christmas Island from either Perth direct or via Cocos Islands as well as direct from South East Asia. Obtaining a visa from most countries is now as easy as buying your ticket - your travel agent can assist you. The available Airlines to Christmas Island is Virgin Blue Airlines which I link it to this Hub.

Second, you can go in more sophisticated way, by Cruise Ships. Pasific Sun is the available cruising which will harbor at HMAS Sydney, Broome, Steep Point, Geraldton ports all in Australia, also Semarang, Bali, Lombok, Komodo Island ports, Indonesia. You can check their schedules with your travel agents.

The third way, for you who's love adventure; is by Yacht, which I prefer the most (*_~). I link the information about the facility they provided for the Yachts in the Island.

There are several accommodations you can choose if you want to visit Christmas Island, which each one of them promising great enjoyable view and nice place to rest.

From the pictures some seem nice, but better to see it yourself to be sure. For myself, I usually choose the private but more humble place like Cabin, but if you like to socialize with more people there is a Resort and Lodges too. Or if you like something private but more cozy, there is a place called The Sanctuary or The Retreat which will provide you with luxury in hideaway.

You can find further information about it in the link I provided for you bellow.

Well, dear friend, that's all I can share to you. I hope someday we can meet there, laugh over the crawling uneatable Red Crabs, maybe. If it is God’s will.

God bless you all.

Freya