Christmas Island - Tropical Paradise Indian Ocean

Santa Claus is not on Christmas island, nor there are herds of reindeer or ice ands snow, but a tropical island with sunny skies, soft sand and the wide ocean. The island is simply named for the Yuletide holiday when Captain William Mynors of the vessel ' Royal Mary' of the British East India Company on the December 25, 1643, Christmas Day when he arrived on its shores. The earliest recorded visit to Christmas Island was recorded in March 1688 by William Dampier of the British vessel 'Cygnet' when the sailing clipper was blown of course in an easterly direction and arrived at the island, which was found uninhabited. An account of his discovery can be found in the book 'Dampier's Voyages'.

An interested party that would like to visit the island has many inquiries pertaining to its location, its geography, the fauna and flora, transport to the island accommodation and, off course its special activities which the territory if famed. Margaret Knoll which has unique and magnificent views of the east coast is a great vantage point to watch the island's rare birdlife. Highlights of bird life include the rarest bobby and frigate birds in the world, the Abbotts Booby, the Christmas Island Frigatebird and the inquisitive Christmas Island Thrush.

When you will look at a map you will see that Christmas Island is simply a dot in the Indian Ocean under Australian Territorial Commission, located about 2600 kilometers north-west of Perth Australia. The nearest island neighbor is Java of the Indonesian Archipelago, just 360 kilometers away.