Christmas Island early morn…….

Photography & Travel: Name This Flower

One of the few splashes of color during a trip to Kiritimati (Christmas Island), I could never quite identify this flowering tree/shrub. I couldn’t find out if it is native or introduced to the London, Kiritimati locale. 

Above, Agnes Taia Reiti, during her birthday celebration wore a colorful, flowered head band. Outside, her husband, Eri, stands before the tree that bore the beautiful white flowers.

Travel: Christmas Island Cemetery

I found these two images from a trip to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) a few years back. 

Grey Skies: Recalling Blue

The skies have turned that prolonged color of grey. Shades of grey, day after day. I will be alright for awhile longer, but by February or March, I will crave blue, warmth, sunshine, dryness. In the meantime, I will look at photos that recall blue skies.

Sunrise Honolulu

Sunrise in Honolulu as we headed to the airport to fly to Kiritimati (Christmas Is.)

Fly Fishing: The Flat…Surreal World

Examples of Christmas Island Flats in the Lagoon area.

On the flat. This perfectly clear water may be 6″ deep or mid thigh deep, influenced by tides. It seems one could see anything on this flat that can extend out hundreds of yards. I often had no difficulty seeing Black Tip Reef Sharks cruising toward me. But seeing the Bonefish, for me, was a difficult exercise. Seeing movement, the movement of a shadow not the actual fish was hard to grasp at first.

Here are a couple articles that helpfully explain the preparation and realities of chasing the ‘grey ghost’…the Bonefish. 

Photo: Pine Island Angler Note the shadow beneath the fish. This is what you often notice on the flat. The shadow moving across the bottom, singularly or with luck a pod. Looking for one or two shadows moving is harder. The wind often kicks up to disturb the surface and further complicate the sighting. Of course, accomplished guides make all the difference. Sunglasses! Do not scrimp. Research and buy the best!!!

The flat and the adjoining depths are a surreal sensory experience. It is hard to explain the colors, the angles, the sky, the wind, the power of the fish. Unique experience in my fly fishing travels.

This is your taxi. The boat is guided up onto the edge of the flat and you climb out onto the platform and down stairs onto the flat.

Photography: O-Dark-30

The daily excursion commenced with arising at 0400, tinkering with gear, grabbing a light bite and coffee and then, as a group moving down to the boats in the bay and venturing forth at 0600.

Innocence & Imagination

Photography: Purposely Remote

Some of the ‘flats’ of Christmas Island

“During the Cold War there was some nuclear weapons testing in the Christmas Island area. The United Kingdom supposedly conducted its first successful hydrogen bomb test near here on 15 May 1957; Christmas Island was the operation’s main base. In fact, this test did not work as planned, and the first British H-bomb was successfully detonated over the southeastern tip of Christmas Island on 8 November 1957. Subsequent test series in 1958 took place above or near Christmas Island itself. The United States conducted 22 successful nuclear detonations as part of Operation Dominic here in 1962. Some toponyms (like Banana and Main Camp) come from the nuclear testing period, during which at times over 4,000 servicemen were present. By 1969, military interest in Christmas Island had ceased and the facilities were abandoned and for the most part dismantled.” (Wiki)

Photography: Lazy Islander Pup

LONDON VILLAGE, KIRITIMATI IS., REP. OF KIRIBATI